Taking off again...

After such a challenging period for aviation, we were delighted to host such a successful Jobs Fair at London Luton Airport last Friday. It was heartening to see such a positive response too, with hundreds of job seekers attending and numbers of people prepared to queue out the door on a cold and damp Friday morning to meet face to face with prospective employers.

?The atmosphere inside was fantastic too and provides me with renewed enthusiasm towards the airport’s recovery. In all, more than 600 job-seekers came to meet with the 21 airport employers who are looking to fill the 800+ roles across aviation security, cabin crew, IT, retail, hospitality and everything besides.

For me, this clearly underlines the impact that the pandemic has had. However, it also tangibly demonstrates the importance of London Luton Airport to the local economy and the role we will play in the region’s recovery, as air travel steadily recovers.

The numbers back this up too. 35% of all supply chain spend is within a 20-mile radius of the airport whilst, pre-pandemic, LLA was responsible for 27,000 jobs directly or through the supply chain.

With restrictions on international travel lifting, we’re looking forward to passenger numbers growing steadily over the coming months. The recent increase in passengers over summer and October half term are promising, and we are optimistic that this will continue.

We are also at an important juncture in the airport’s opportunity to grow further over the long-term too, as we await the final decision on our application to increase the annual passenger cap by 1 million to 19 million. This is significant not only for the airport, but for the local region and economy; ensuring that it is best equipped to take advantage of the predicted recovery in aviation over the next few years.

It wouldn’t be right to comment on the success of last week’s Job Fair without the huge efforts of our partners. The collaboration of Luton Council and the DWP were absolutely crucial to its success, alongside the huge contributions made by every team at LLA and our partner businesses.

I was particularly pleased to meet Cllr Aslam Khan Deputy Leader of Luton Council and to welcome the council’s Adult Learning team, who were on hand to talk to people about its Passport to Employment programme, helping local people get the support they need to get a job, build a career and take advantage of the opportunities on offer at LLA. They’ve been working exceptionally hard to help local residents land aviation security roles at the airport, where many airport careers have begun.

This is just one example of how we are working closely with Luton Council to ensure the local community maximise the benefits of a successful airport.

We also welcomed The Prince’s Trust, our long-standing partner who run the successful ‘Get into Airports’ programme. More than 80% of young people who have taken part in the work experience and mentoring scheme have ended up in full-time employment.

Thanks once again to everyone involved in making the fair such a success, and to everyone that attended. I’m looking forward to seeing new faces at the airport soon!

For anyone interested in joining us, you can see a range of jobs available here https://www.london-luton.co.uk/corporate/working-at-lla