[이코노미스트] “After they go to the interview, half of the flight attendants are.”

Preparing to secretly leave for extended leave … It’s a special job, so it’s hard to get into other sectors.

As work leave is extended due to the extended Corona 19, the number of aviation industry officials preparing to change jobs is increasing. The image shows the flight attendants preparing for departure. / Photo: Yonhap News

“When I went to the interview site where the bankers were selected, half of them were flight attendants.” On September 23, an anonymous flight attendant attending Air Seoul posted a post about a job change interview in the “Blind” employee community application. According to the article, there were six candidates at the final interview site for a banker, and three of them were flight attendants. An anonymous person said: “I entered the interview with confidence because my experience as a flight attendant can help with the personal work, but when I introduced myself one after the other, I was disappointed to see that there were two other attendants. flight with my own experience “. At 19, I realized that many flight attendants like me were preparing to flee the aviation industry and I realized that my career as a flight attendant had no special discrimination. ”

As the Crown crisis continues 19, more and more aviation industry officials are secretly preparing to change jobs. There are dozens of articles every day in the aviation industry about preparing to move to another industry in the blind application where you can sign up after verifying that you are an employee via the company’s official email. Articles published in this application are made public by the author’s affiliate company, but are characterized by anonymity.

Asiana Airlines flight attendant Kim Mo said in an interview with The Economist: “The flight schedule came out two months before Corona 19, but the flight schedule came out one day before Corona 19 exploded. “. He said: “I understand that I am thinking of changing jobs because there is a vacation schedule for months.” He continued: “It’s not an atmosphere to say that even the motives are openly preparing for a job change. “I’m sorry to tell us that I am leaving this sector because most of the time I have dreamed and prepared for a long time.”

2Q airline sales

Aviation industry officials preparing for turnover say, “I don’t see the future.” The worsening of the situation in the aviation sector was in fact marked by the sales figures for the second quarter of this year. According to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines’ sales in the second quarter of this year were KRW 1.6909 trillion and KRW 818.6 billion, respectively, down 50% from the same period last year Last year. The situation of low cost airlines operating on limited routes is even more difficult. Jeju Air’s second quarter sales of this year were KRW 36 billion, Air Busan’s KRW 27.3 billion, T-Way Airlines KRW 24.6 billion and Jin’s KRW 23.2 billion. Air, a level of 10% compared to the same period last year. Sales fell by 90%.

It is expected to become more difficult from November. This is because the employment maintenance subsidy, which the government provided to national airlines to minimize Corona 19 damage, ended at the end of last October. Employee salaries also fell by more than half between prolonged rotational holidays and employee unpaid holidays. This is why it is considered the only way of life for heads of households responsible for supporting their families. Also, as Eastar Jet recently laid off 605 employees, there is growing anxiety in the aviation industry that the “unemployment crisis has become a reality”.

However, due to the characteristics of the sector, it is difficult to change jobs in other sectors as it has the specialty of “aviation” and “flight”. “I decided to prepare for civil service exams during my recent leave,” said Lee Mo, who works on the marketing team of a foreign airline. Mr. Lee said: “After the Corona 19 outbreak, the leave period was extended, so I was ready to change jobs. In the beginning, since my current job is marketing, I prepared for a job as a marketing team for a global company in a whole new field, not aviation, “he said. After dropping a few times in the interview Eventually, the company gave up the job and went to the public service exam. In fact, it sells airplane seats and goods in general, but I don’t know why they see it differently. ” He continued: “I felt very proud while working in the aviation industry, but I didn’t know that such a career in the travel industry would be an obstacle when I quit my job.”

If you’re an airline pilot or mechanic, it’s harder to turn around. In a comment to a recent article on aviation industry turnover published on the blind, “It would be nice to be able to dream of a job change. I only have one control skill, what should I do in this market? “,” Aviation maintenance technology is of no use in other industries, “” People who have worked in the cargo or passenger sales industry may even change jobs in travel agencies or logistics companies. “There are articles complaining like “In an interview, a pilot of a national airline said,” Flight attendants who are still relatively young can drop their airline careers drastically and bring in new employees, but most pilots have went through a long period of training abroad or flew in Korea. The youngest person is between 30 and 40 years old, “he said.

There are many people in the aviation industry who work part time as they prepare for a job change. These are the so-called “two jobs” that use part-time jobs to take advantage of their vacation days. Currently, domestic airlines, such as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, are banning simultaneous jobs. However, as wages dropped and rest days continued indefinitely, there were instances where people earned living expenses by working part-time without the company’s knowledge.

An airline flight attendant said: “Among flight attendants, male flight attendants perform part-time delivery jobs or lead surrogates like Coupang Itz and People of Delivery, while female flight attendants run a market. SNS who occasionally sells goods via Instagram or takes product photos. “I’ve heard I earn pocket money while doing advertisements posted on social media throughout the year,” he said.

Given this situation, there are also airlines that allow simultaneous jobs. According to the Asahi Shimbun report, Japan’s largest airline, ANA, has created new employment guidelines so that employees whose wages were cut due to Corona 19 can enter into part-time contracts with other companies to work on a part-time basis. Under the new guidelines, ANA employees will be able to work part-time with other companies while working as airlines starting next year. It will apply to all 15,000 ANA employees, including pilots and flight attendants.

Reporter La Ye-jin [email protected]