Manchester Airport held a job fair in Wythenshawe to recruit staff after it has been plagued by staff shortages and huge passenger delays.
Long queues at the airport have been reported for some time, with queues going back as far as the car park on one occasion as passengers struggled to make it through security. This week, Karen Smart, the airport's boss, warned that queues could continue for 'several weeks' and finally acknowledged it was struggling with staff shortages following the pandemic and amid a new surge in international travel.
“We want to be clear with our customers that getting back to full strength is going to take time and there will unfortunately be periods over the next few weeks when it will take longer to get through the airport than it should," the managing director said.
Read more: 'Aggressive, dangerous' woman banned from Jet2 for life after causing chaos on Manchester flight
Bosses said they were now on a major recruitment drive with hundreds of vacancies to fill. Now Manchester Airport Group, together with Manchester city council and the airport academy are working together to recruit.
On Thursday, a job fair was held at Wythenshawe forum, with over 30 employers looking to hire staff in the run up the airport’s busy season. The busy fair offered a range of roles from baggage handlers to team members at the airport’s Costa Coffee and Hamley’s stores, with many of the recruiters offering on the spot interviews and jobs.
The Manchester Evening News visited the job fair and spoke to potential candidates, employers and the organisers to understand the drive for recruitment. Kai Warmisham, a coffee shop team member, hopes getting a job at Manchester airport will help him get to a cabin crew position.
He said: “At the moment, I’ve just got a weekend job in a coffee shop. At first I wanted to be a chef in hospitality, but my next port of call would be cabin crew.
“If I get a job in the airport, I can see how it all works and work up to be cabin crew. I want to work in London and Manchester Airport is on my doorstep.
“I’ve looked at Up and Away, who do aircraft cleaning, and there’s a lot of customer service agents so check in and retail. It’s been really thought through. I live in Sale so it’s local. I would rely on the trams, but they don’t start until 4am, but there’s a lot of flexibility.”
Mohammad Shaiif, however struggled to find any roles at the job fair which matched his skill set. He said: “I’m here to get a job, there’s a lot of jobs here but I haven’t found one for my skills.
“I used to be an interpreter in Afghanistan, I have a forklift licence here in the UK, these are mostly working in shops. I would like a security job.”
However, Matthew Bamber, who is currently unemployed, believes a position at the airport would offer the flexibility he needs for childcare.
He said: “It’s an opportunity, it’s very local. I live in Lymm so it’s only 15 miles from here. I’ve looked at ramp agent, baggage handler. The jobs offer flexibility, it would really help with childcare.
“The pay’s not bad at all, most of them pay between £10 and £12 an hour. I’ve worked 12 hour day shifts, 12 hour night shifts, the 3am start doesn’t bother me. I’m up anyway with the kids.”
For employers, the fair offers opportunities to people who want to work in travel following a rocky time for the industry. Craig Buchan, operations manager at Fast Track explained, he said: “Post pandemic, people’s work priorities have changed.
“People have come out of the travel industry, and work elsewhere now, it was so volatile during the pandemic.”
The Restaurant Group, who found that they had a shortage of workers following the pandemic, were interviewing on the spot and today hired a chef for the airport’s Giraffe restaurant during the fair.
Simon Parkes, the general manager for Giraffe at the Restaurant Group, explained how quickly the job market is moving. He said: “For the majority of people, we interview straight away, you can’t hang around, not now.
“There is a massive shortage of chefs, hospitality in general it's a twofold. Twofold of Covid and Brexit, a mass exodus of people leaving and not wanting to do the right to stay and Covid shut us down for a year and a half.
“Some staff went away for two years and came back, others didn’t. We’re looking for outgoing people, we look for anyone, we train to our needs. If I get one chef today, I'll be happy. I’ve got one today and that’s been worth it.”
Richard Parker-Yates, a Hamley’s expert, was very pleased about those he had met at his stall for the Hamley’s store.
He explained that some potential employees had knowledge of certain toys even he didn’t have. He said: “We’ve seen a lot of great candidates this morning, who’ve all had the right personalities for the Hamley’s brand, energetic, fun, we want a fun experience for all the customers as well.
“Everyone that has come to the table today has given the right sort of energy for that sort of role and they’ve been very eager to get the knowledge behind the Hamley’s brand as well.
“In the past it has been difficult [to recruit] with all the Covid regulations and everything that has gone on recently. We are starting to go in the right direction with it. For example, we’re looking for two people today to help us with the busy summer period, part time roles at the moment to get us through that busy period.
“Summer is our Christmas at the airport. [We want] someone who is good at customer service, someone who is fun, someone is energetic who is not scared to go the extra mile whether it’s demonstrating, whether it’s in terms of proper knowledge, helping a customer, whether its delivery side, every single box is getting ticked this morning.”
One of the most popular stalls was Jet2.com, which saw big crowds and queues for most of the morning. Marc Burns, the general manager for Jet2.com at Manchester Airport saw the fair as a success which helped him find new staff.
He said: “We’ve seen a fantastic range of candidates today, there’s such a wide network of people available on your doorstep in this area. We’ve seen some fantastic people who we hope will join us in the near future.
“Initially when we opened our campaign, the interest was quite slow but as the season has picked up we've had a lot of interest for all of the roles and that’s obviously transferred into people joining us.
“We have all ground operation roles available so people who work operationally in the airport looking after customers’ baggage, but we also have opportunities in cabin crew and obviously our customer contact centre as well.”
The job fair didn’t just help those already in the workforce, as some students from Cheadle College were present exploring future career opportunities.
Kelsey Howarth, a travel and tourism student, went to the job fair wanting to work in the cabin crew, but left considering a job as a check in agent. She said: “I could work check in and in the lounge with Swissport, it’s just someone different.
Meanwhile, Isabelle Bradbury, also a travel and tourism student, was sold on working for Jet2.com. She said: “It’s well known, it’s family oriented, you get a staff discount and the chance to travel the world. Not many people get to experience that!"
She also saw the importance of working her way up and agreed with Kelsey that a job in check in could lead to bigger things. She said: “It’s customer experience, a lot of people who do cabin crew start at check in.”
Gareth Burrow, head of employment and skills at the Trafford college group, who work in partnership through their airport academy with MAG and Manchester City Council, saw the fair as a great opportunity to help the industry recover and to help those living locally to the airport.
He said: “Aviation was almost crippled in regards to the Covid lockdowns one, two and three. The airport got shut down almost, unfortunately a lot of staff were furloughed and left the aviation industry.
“Restrictions have eased and travel has increased and obviously people are starting to travel again so there’s a massive demand in regard to employers in the airport and recruiting.
“You’ve got things like baggage handlers, check in agents, aircraft cleaners. You have so many roles and responsibilities, you’ve got catering, bar workers, baristas, all those guys are in there today trying to recruit.
A lot of the jobs on offer at the fair today were entry level positions and were generally offering wages above the minimum wage. From April, the national minimum wage will be £9.50, with the living wage increasing to £9.90.
Gareth explained that a lot of the roles available at the airport are above this. He said: “A lot of Manchester Airport Group roles are above £12 per hour, so security officers and security ambassadors are £11 and £12 an hour respectively. I think the employers in the airport are very watchful of what minimum wage is.
“From my perspective, personally, a lot of the positions at the airport are entry level positions but there is flexibility on shift patterns and for work life balance. So it works for so many people, it’s about having that context.
“Obviously, people can work in Tesco or Asda for similar or better money but the airport is a very different job. It’s dynamic, it’s ever changing - everyday is a bit different. There’s a bit more of career progression over what you get from a standard job.
“There’s opportunity and growth as well, and for a lot of people in Wythenshawe you’re on the doorstep of the airport. It’s all about that as well, the locality.”
Ryan Tracey, a work and skills specialist at Manchester city council, reiterated this sentiment, saying: “Some employers will pay at a higher rate, some will include fringe benefits, you’re looking at employers across airport city.
“A lot of people are looking for flexibility, for example if you’ve got a single mum looking to get into the labour market they might be looking for more flexibility with shift patterns rather than actual bottom-line what they’re getting paid.”
He added: “We’ve had a difficult two years, Covid has presented a range of challenges for residents around accessing work and we have all the issues that affect the nation like the rising cost of living.
“So it’s more important than ever that residents can access those opportunities for work and training as well. We’ve got thousands of opportunities here today for Greater Manchester residents to come and access jobs, training opportunities and positive outcomes.
“Generally when we do a careers events, you don’t usually get this many employers in a room with this many job opportunities available. So everybody that comes through those doors can walk away with something and that’s the bonus for us.
“It’s the culmination of the strong partnership we have in the city between ourselves, Manchester airport group, the airport academy, and a variety of other local partners and training providers.
“This is so important as the labour market bounces back and grows stronger, it helps to support all people, we’ve received people from Ukraine, recently we’ve received people from Afghanistan and we’re helping those people into the labour market and look forward to getting some positive outcomes.”
