Received Over 10,000 Resumes For 750 Available Openings

Southwest Airlines earlier this week posted openings for 750 flight attendant positions, the first time since 2011 that they have recruited outside the company for FAs.

In a little over two hours, the company had received over 10,000 applications for the jobs, a rate calculated to average about 80 per minute, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The airline needs to staff up on flight attendants because it is acquiring more and larger airplanes, according to company spokesman Dan Landson. The low-cost carrier has 55 Boeing 737-800s on order, and each requires four flight attendants. The airline was the launch customer for the 737 MAX, and is also planning to expand its international routes.

The flight attendants who get hired will start at $24.39 per hour and work a minimum of 66 hours per month, Landson said.

Flight attendant still seems to be an attractive career choice. Delta got 22,000 resumes when it posted 300 jobs in December of 2012. Over 14,000 applied for 420 positions at American in 2010.

Some analysts say that the number of resumes Southwest received is indicative of a high demand for work despite government statistics that would seem to indicate that the economy is improving.

(Southwest 737 MAX pictured in file photo)

FMI: www.southwest.com