Captain Eddie Sproul and ÊTransport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin .
easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall was joined by Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin MP for the official opening of the airline’s new training facility ‘The easyJet Gatwick Academy’.
The new Academy, a £2.7 million investment by easyJet, has been built to accommodate easyJet’s continued growth and houses a world-class training facility comprising classrooms, cabin simulator, evacuation slide and fire training rig. The Academy is located within Concorde House at London Gatwick Airport and will train easyJet pilots and crew from bases across Europe. easyJet currently has crew based in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal and from 2016 Spain.
Carolyn McCall also announced that easyJet, the UK’s largest airline, will recruit 1,140 crew over the next year with a split of approximately 830 cabin crew and 310 pilots.
There will be job opportunities for both pilots and crew at all easyJet’s bases across the UK – Belfast, Bristol, Edinburgh, Gatwick, Glasgow, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Southend and Stansted.
Interested candidates are invited to apply viahttps://careers.easyjet.com/ and to visit easyJet’s linkedin page at https://www.linkedin.com/company/easyjet
easyJet invests in its people and provides the majority of their training, learning and development in house. As well as training new pilots and cabin crew around 7,000 current easyJet crew complete annual recurrent training. Around 60% of this training will now take place at the new easyJet Gatwick Academy with the remainder being delivered at easyJet’s existing training facility in Luton.
In keeping with easyJet’s commitment to develop its people, over the next year the airline will also promote 200 Cabin Crew to Cabin Managers and 140 Co-Pilots to Captains.
easyJet has launched a new initiative to increase the recruitment of female pilots. It aims to double the proportion of new entrant pilots who are female over two years in the first phase of a long term strategy to recruit, retain and develop many more female pilots.
Carolyn McCall, chief executive of easyJet commented:
“I am delighted to see the opening of the easyJet Gatwick Academy which is a modern state-of-the-art facility that enables us to continue to train our pilots and crew to the highest international standards at a time when the airline continues to grow.
“Over the next twelve months we will recruit over 1,100 pilots and crew. easyJet is a dynamic airline and we are looking for people who are as passionate about aviation as they are about customer service. We are fully committed to nurturing new talent and there are plenty of development opportunities available.
“We are proud of our skilled crew who offer the best customer service on the routes that we fly. They are trained in safety and medical procedures as well as customer service so they can provide easyJet’s customers with the friendly service they have become accustomed to on every flight, every day on our 1500 daily flights.
“The skill and professionalism of our pilots is one of easyJet’s key strengths. We offer a clear career path for pilots with the potential to move from first officer to captain more quickly than at other airlines. Beyond that there are further opportunities for pilots to develop their career whether that is into training or management.”
Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin MP commented:
“The world-class reputation of British pilots and crews has helped build our thriving aviation industry and this training facility will help underpin that success.
“Airline pilots and crew are now able to apply for financial support as part of the government’s commitment to create three million more apprenticeships across the country. I welcome easyJet’s efforts to increase recruitment of female pilots and make sure that careers in aviation are open to all.”
Stewart Wingate, CEO London Gatwick Airport commented:
“easyJet’s operation at Gatwick continues to go from strength to strength, with The Gatwick Academy the latest development in the easyJet Gatwick success story, as the airport becomes a pivotal base for easyJet’s training of pilots across Europe.
“With over 100 routes from Gatwick and new routes coming on board this year, including Friedrichshafen, Preveza, Pula, Figari, Brindisi and Stuttgart, easyJet’s significant and growing operation at Gatwick reflects the quality of service and choice we strive to bring our passengers.”
For the past eight years easyJet training has taken place at the airline’s training facility in Luton but due to easyJet’s continued growth and consequent increase of cabin crew and pilot recruitment their training will now take place across both sites.
