Etihad Airways is set to embark on an international recruitment drive to hire as many as 2,400 crew and several flying chefs.
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier will visit 12 overseas cities, eight of them in Italy, as it expands its route network and invests heavily in its business and first class cabins.
Etihad will also host recruitment events in Japan, Tunisia, Germany and Morocco.
• The schedule for the eight recruitment days in Italy is:
Rome: September 29
Naples: October 2
Bari: October 5
Milan: October 6
Catania: October 8
Florence: October 9
Bologna: October 12
Venice: October 15
The accent on recruitment in Italy comes after Etihad in August acquired a 49 per cent stake in the debt-laden Italian carrier Alitalia in return for an investment of €560 million (Dh2.72 billion).
• The four overseas recruitment days are:
Narita (Japan): October 22
Tunis: October 26
Dusseldorf: October 27
Casablanca: October 28
• The airline will also hold session in its home base of Abu Dhabi for cabin-crew candidates. The dates for those are October 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 October. There will also be open days for food and beverage managers and inflight chefs on october 13 and 27.
“To support the rapid growth of the airline, we are hosting our recruitment drive in these countries, all strategically-important markets for the airline,” said Aubrey Tiedt, Etihad Airways’ vice president of guest services.
Among the new hires will be in-flight chefs as the airline competes with Arabian Gulf rivals to pamper premium-paying passengers. The carrier in May introduced a flying hotel suite complete with a Savoy-trained butler. The suite is offered on Airbus A380s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Etihad has inaugurated seven new routes so far in 2014. Over the rest of the year it is to add Phuket in Thailand, and San Francisco and Dallas in the US.
For the first half of 2015, Etihad is to start daily flights to Kolkata in India, Entebbe in Uganda, Edinburgh in Scotland and Madrid in Spain. It will also fly to Hong Kong four times a week and Algiers, three times per week. For the second half of 2015, Etihad will add Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. The new routes would take Etihad’s total to 110.
The airline will roll out its first A380 in Hamburg this Thursday.
“With the Airbus A380s and overall growth, Etihad will need more cabin crew,” said one aviation analyst. “Etihad is also looking to take more of Air India’s 777s. There’s fairly substantial growth already announced and I suspect there will be more to come for 2015,” he added.
Etihad's fleet has 104 aircraft. It will receive 14 airplanes in 2015 – four A380s, three Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and seven Airbus A320s.
Etihad employs about 4,000 cabin crew from 115 countries.
It will invite up to 200 candidates in each of the 12 cities and provide them with information about living in Abu Dhabi.
The airline is also seeking to rent more accommodation in the capital to house its rapidly expanding workforce.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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