Air NZ lists regional cabin crew jobs

After a year of deep cuts Air New Zealand is looking to hire regional cabin crew as domestic air travel recovers from Covid-19.

The national carrier is seeking applications for Napier, Nelson, Tauranga and Wellington cabin crew roles on a six-month fixedterm contract.

The hiring round comes at the end of a bruising year for the airline which, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, reduced in size by a third and let go of more than 4000 staff members.

Cabin crew made up about a third of job losses including 210 regional crew jobs on its ATR and Q300 aircraft.

During the nationwide lockdown, Air New Zealand was operating at just 1 per cent of its total pre-pandemic capacity.

But while New Zealand has been at alert level 1, the airline’s domestic capacity has increased to more than 70 per cent of prepandemic levels.

In November, Air New Zealand carried 671,000 domestic passengers, which was 28 per cent down on the same period in 2019. It also added more capacity to its domestic schedule for the holiday period.

Air New Zealand posted an advertisement for the cabin crew roles on its website on December 23, with applications closing on January 4.

The advert said Air New Zealand was looking for crew to join the business as its operation began to grow again. ‘‘You’ll play an integral part in flying Kiwis around the country while getting to know all the regional spots.’’

New Zealand-based flight attendant roles meant crew were never far from home and ‘‘there’s no international travel to worry about’’, the advert said.

Successful applicants would be working in a team of two, ensuring safety in the cabin, providing in-flight service to customers and liaising with pilots and ground staff, it said.

The environment on regional flights was ‘‘intimate and informal’’, allowing candidates to chat with customers and tailor their customer service to a wide range of passengers.

‘‘You will be able to step up, take charge of matters in-flight and really own your role.’’

Candidates must be a permanent New Zealand resident or citizen or an Australian citizen, have at least two years’ customer service experience in a highpressure role and commit to rostered shifts, weekends and public holidays and be available for nights away from home.

Applicants must reside within a 90-minute commute of the base that they are applying for, it said.

The government careers website, careers.govt.nz, says job opportunities for flight attendants are poor due to the reduction of passenger flights as a result of Covid-19.