Korean Air to Hire New Pilots... First Time Since COVID-19

One Year and Eight Months Since Preparing for the Post-Corona Era

Korean Air new employees started working one year after passing the exam in February.

[Asia Economy Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Korean Air will hire new pilots in the second half of this year.

Korean Air announced on the 19th that it is recruiting new pilots with military and civilian experience for 2022. This is the first time Korean Air has conducted pilot recruitment in about 1 year and 8 months since the end of 2019.

The recruitment is divided into military and civilian experience categories, and applicants must have a total fixed-wing flight time of at least 1,000 hours to be eligible. The number of recruits is reported to be in the double digits. Applications will be accepted until the 27th of next month.

Korean Air appears to be strengthening its pilot workforce to prepare for increased passenger and cargo flights in the post-COVID-19 era. Since training skilled pilots requires about 1 year for small aircraft and 3 to 4 years for medium and large aircraft, it is necessary to secure pilots in advance.

Korean Air currently has about 2,700 pilots. Among them, approximately 1,100 pilots operate cargo aircraft models such as the B747 and B777, while some small passenger aircraft pilots are currently on leave.

However, regarding this recruitment, Korean Air is receiving paid employment retention subsidies from the Ministry of Employment and Labor until next month, so actual onboarding may be delayed until the subsidy period ends. In principle, companies receiving such subsidies cannot hire new employees or lay off workers during the subsidy period.

A Korean Air official explained, "We are conducting recruitment to stably secure pilot personnel in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era," adding, "Since final onboarding does not occur during the period when employment retention subsidies are received, there should be no problem in proceeding with the recruitment process."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.