Skift Travel News Blog

Aer Lingus has announced the reopening of its pilot recruitment program for the first time since 2019, with the recruitment drive set to remain open for the next five years.

The first round of the pilot training program, which is fully sponsored by the airline, will recruit 18 candidates and is open for applications from now until 16th August 2023. For this latest recruitment round, Aer Lingus has stated that it is looking to enhance and embrace diversity in its selection process, by ‘actively striving to increase the number of female applicants to the program’. In the last recruitment round, only 7% of applicants were female, a statistic it is determined to significantly improve upon.

Successful candidates will undergo a 24-month pilot training program beginning in early 2024, which will combine theory and practical studies, and will be conducted in collaboration with the Spanish flight training school FTE Jerez.

“The Aer Lingus Future Pilot Programme opens a world of opportunity for the next generation of pilots who will join our airline. We have a rich history at Aer Lingus of training pilots and our new Future Pilot Programme continues in that wonderful tradition, for which we are well known and respected. We encourage everyone interested to consider our fully funded future pilot programme and we particularly encourage females to apply as we continue our efforts to close the gender gap in aviation,” said Lynne Embleton, chief executive at Aer Lingus. 

You can find out more information on the program here.

International Airlines Group CEO Luis Gallego said Friday that corporate bookings on its flights to and from North America are leading the recovery of business travel at its airlines, which include British Airways and Iberia.

“Business traffic is coming back,” he said during the group’s first-quarter earnings call on Friday. “We see that. For example, banking finance, the levels are around 65 percent the levels that we had in 2019. That’s a sector that is very important for us.”

Overall corporate demand at IAG has recovered to roughly 67 percent of 2019 levels but it varies widely by airline and market. For example, transatlantic corporate demand is at 90 percent of three years ago at British Airways. And across the group, bookings from large corporate accounts has recovered to 60 percent of 2019, while small- and medium-sized business bookings are at 80 percent. IAG also owns Aer Lingus and Spanish budget carrier Vueling.

The business recovery at IAG puts it in between peers Air France-KLM and the Lufthansa Group. Air France-KLM said Thursday that corporate demand is at 70 percent of 2019, while Lufthansa said the same day that it is only at roughly 50 percent but saw a 30-point improvement during the first quarter.