Unemployed American Airline Workers Should Learn Chinese

To the hundreds of young and unattached American Airlines workers threatened with lay offs: consider taking some classes in basic Mandarin Chinese.

Chinese airlines are on a recruitment drive for foreign flight attendants as the country’s aviation and travel industry continue to expand in the world’s No. 2 economy.

All the major airlines contacted by China Daily reporters recently said they were hiring foreign crew members for international flights. While many of these new cabin crew members will be from neighboring Asian countries, Westerners are following the trend East bound.

The daily reported that a growing number of foreign passengers booking flights on Chinese carriers has lent itself to higher demand for foreign language speakers.

Air China has the highest number of foreign attendants, currently around 40, with an expected 50 more South Korean staff waiting for work permits. China Southern said that flight attendants from India and Central Asia have been employed, with more to come, as well as others from Australia, France and the Netherlands.

China Eastern Airlines said it wants to hire around 100 foreign cabin crew members after hiring 20 flight attendants from Germany and France already this year.

Shen Xiaosheng, China Eastern’s deputy director of publicity, told China Daily on Wednesday that “many more foreign staff will be joining” it in future, insisting that the addition of more foreign faces has actually contributed to the carrier’s growing international and domestic traffic.

Earlier this year, American Airlines said it plans to lay off 13,000 workers in a restructuring effort to keep the company alive. The company reported a $15 million operating loss and a $142 million net loss in April.  The company now trades in the pink sheets, over the counter for less than $0.50 a share.

United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek told employees in March that the carrier will eliminate 1,300 jobs in Houston alone by this fall.