Up to 700 new cabin crew take off in careers with Jetstar

Natasha Banjac always wanted to work in aviation. Now the 45-year-old registered nurse and mum of three is realising her dream by signing up to one of Jetstar’s biggest cabin crew recruitment campaigns in its 19-year history. 

The low-cost carrier is recruiting up to 700 new cabin crew by the end of the year to support its growth to new destinations and help improve its operational performance. 

Almost 40 cabin crew training or ‘ground schools’ will take place across the country to support the new recruits in Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, the Gold Coast and Adelaide. 

The new cabin crew positions are part of the Qantas Group’s long-term plan to create 8500 new operational roles over the next decade. 

Jetstar’s Head of Customer Experience, Jennifer Armor, said the new recruits come to Jetstar with great life experience. 

“It’s been fantastic to welcome new recruits with such a variety of skills and experience. 

“We have people joining us with backgrounds in health care, hospitality and retail, who are all excited to travel as part of their career. 

“If you’ve ever wanted a job that takes you around Australia and the world and helps others do the same, now’s a great time to join Jetstar.” 

Jetstar cabin crew trainee, Natasha Banjac, said she was excited to start her dream job. 

“I always wanted to be a flight attendant, I love everything about aviation, but after high school I ended up studying nursing. 

“After 22 years of nursing including working in emergency, my kids are older, and I have more flexibility, so decided now is the time to follow my dream. 

“Being a nurse, I can handle any challenges that come my way and I’m a people person, so my skills are very transferrable to Jetstar. 

“I show that you’re never too old to change careers and follow your passion. My kids are really excited for me and of course the staff travel discounts for family.” 

Growing network and improving reliability 

In the past year, Jetstar has increased the number of customer service, engineering and operational staff by up to 20 percent as the airline continues to grow its network of destinations and improves its operational performance. 

With its eighth Airbus A321neo LR (NEO) due to arrive this month, and a further 10 of the next generation aircraft set to join the fleet by the end of next year, Jetstar is flying new routes and adding more frequencies to popular destinations. 

Australia’s first direct service between Sydney and Rarotonga starts on 29 June and from 21 July the NEO will add 58,000 seats between Adelaide and Bali, bringing more low fares to more customers. 

The low-cost carrier also made changes to check-in, bag drop and boarding times for domestic and international flights in Australia and New Zealand on 23 May to help more flights get away on time. 

In addition to hiring more staff, introducing new aircraft and adjusting check-in and boarding times, Jetstar has been upgrading its systems and processes and changing the way it manages spare parts. 

Combined, these initiatives are showing encouraging signs, with significant improvements in Jetstar’s operational performance in May. 

The airline’s latest data shows its domestic cancellation rate has almost halved in the last month and its on-time performance has increased by five percentage points in May compared to April. 

In May, Jetstar carried more than 1.4 million customers on 8300 flights across its domestic and international networks with fares as low as $39 one way.