SINGAPORE : Changi Airport is looking to hire more than 6,600 workers, as it embarks on one of its biggest recruitment drives to take full advantage of a fierce rebound in air travel.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday night (May 17) that people will be hired on the spot at the One Aviation Careers Fair to take place at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre next Friday and Saturday.

More than 20 aviation companies will be conducting on-site interviews.

Hiring will be focused on filling frontline passenger service positions, as well as newly created roles in innovation and technology.

Behind-the-scene workers such as ground handlers will also be in high demand, with both Sats and Dnata looking for more hands.

There are also job vacancies in the quality assurance team, which checks for food contaminant at the microbial level, and for airport emergency service and cyber security officers.

"At this growth rate, Changi is expected to recover more than half of its pre-Covid-19 passenger volume in 2022," CAG said.

"A positive vibe and energy are returning to Changi. More flights and passengers mean more airport staff are needed to support this growth.

The air transport sector lost about a quarter to a third of its airport workers during the pandemic.

With air travel quickly returning to pre-Covid-19 levels - by 2023, according to estimates by the International Air Transport Association - CAG is making sure to increase its capacity in tandem, so that manpower bottlenecks do not become a limiting factor in Changi's ambition to restore its air hub status.

Already, CAG has had to reschedule "a very small number of flights" to spread them apart during high peak periods.

Observers also said CAG is approving flights more cautiously, despite airlines now clambering to once more use the slots they had vacated in the last two years.

While filling the 6,600 job vacancies will not bring aviation employment levels back to 2019 levels, it is the industry's first such drive in two years.

CAG said its airport partners are offering competitive salaries, good incentives and better career prospects.

Singapore Airlines has said it will gradually restore its pilots' basic salaries to pre-Covid-19 levels by January next year.

  - ANN