Photo/Illutration An All Nippon Airways Co. airplane at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in March (Shinya Matsumoto)

All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) will resume hiring new graduates as flight attendants in spring 2024 as air travel continues returning to normal.

The company didn’t employ new university graduates for its flight attendant positions in spring in 2021 and 2022, and it will not for 2023 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

However, as demand for air travel is recovering following the lifting of strict border controls, the airline decided it needed more attendants.

ANA will employ around 500 flight attendants in spring 2024.

Those who will graduate from universities or schools in spring 2024 and those who have accepted a job offer with the company to join it in fiscal 2023 can apply to be among the new 500 flight attendants.

Those who graduated or will graduate from universities or schools in the spring of 2021, 2022 or 2023 and who have no such an offer can also apply.

Around 700 new graduates annually joined the company as flight attendants before the pandemic.

The company restricted employing new graduates to positions such as pilots or those for disabled workers in the spring of 2021 and 2022.

It will resume employing new graduates for general office positions within the company in spring 2023.

However, because demand for international air travel was still subdued, the company will not employ new graduates as flight attendants for the third consecutive year in spring 2023.

The pandemic caused the company to significantly reduce flights, which meant less work for its attendants.

The company reduced its number of flight attendants by inviting them to volunteer to temporarily work at other companies.

The midterm financial results of ANA Holdings Inc. for the period between April to September 2022 showed it had gone into the black for the first time in three years by posting a net profit of 19.5 billion yen ($142 million). ANA Holdings is a holding company for the ANA Group, which includes All Nippon Airways.

The number of passengers for the company’s domestic flights is expected to return to the pre-COVID-19 level at the end of fiscal 2022.

Observers predict passengers for its international flights will soon return to 60 percent of that seen before the pandemic.

The company’s rival, Japan Airlines Co. (JAL), will resume employing new graduates as flight attendants in spring 2023.

JAL didn’t employ new graduates as flight attendants in the spring in 2021 and 2022.

Therefore, the company’s new flight attendants in spring 2023 will include those who graduated from universities or schools in the spring in 2021 and 2022.

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