Help for former ATA Flight Attendants

Conference Helping Former ATA Employees Find New Jobs
By Joe Ulery
5/14/2008

April 3 was a bad day at work for the 580 employees at Indianapolis-based ATA Airline. They woke up to news that their employer was filing bankruptcy, and found out they no longer had a job.

But today is a new day for many of those workers. They are done crying, they are finished being depressed, and they are putting on their power suits, ready to get back in the game.

And, they are getting a lot of help.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Indianapolis Private Industry Council (IPIC), Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard's office and Ivy Tech Community College are hosting a "Job and Career Transition Conference" for the displaced employees.

The conference brings together local employers who need more employees.

AAR, Boeing, Angie's List, Clarian Health Partners and WellPoint are among those reviewing the ATA workers' resumes, letting them know what jobs are out there.

Several former ATA flight attendants were at the conference today at Ivy Tech.

Sondra, of Noblesville, worked as an ATA flight attendant for 20 years. She says the help she and her former co-workers are receiving is great.

"Fortunately, WorkOne has been a great help. They had a four-day class that helped us get our resumes up to speed," she said. A lot has changed since the last time Sondra looked for a job. "Now, it's all electronics... it's a completely different world," she said.

But she is ready to put April 3 behind her.

"We all spent time crying on each others shoulders. We had telephone trees. People who were depressed, we tried to stay in contact with them. However, we are survivors, and we look forward," she said.

Amanda, of Noblesville, worked for ATA 16 years.

She says losing a job is tough, but she's ready to move on with her life, and hope's the conference will help her do it.

"My main thing is that I don't know what I want to do. I want to do something different," she said.

James, of Indianapolis, worked for ATA for 23 years, and like Amanda and Sondra, he is keeping positive attitude.

"Initially, it was pretty traumatic, but I am a survivor. You go through phases...denial, then you grieve. But now, I'm kind of over those stages," he said.

He is not sure what he will take away from the job conference, but he is keeping an open mind.

"Maybe I can get a feel for exactly what type of job or company that I want to work for," he said.

Making the trio's job search even harder is the economy and the price of gasoline.

"I actually talked to someone about a job on the south side, but it was so far south that with the salary range and gas prices, I couldn't even approach it," Sondra said.

In addition to the job conference, ATA employees are being encouraged to continue using WorkOne centers.

It great to know they have support and help after the awful bankruptcy. I just hope Aloha Flight Attendants get similar support and help.

Great News for Delta Flight Attendants

Delta Air Lines Inc. will protect thousands of flight attendant, mechanic and reservation jobs in Northwest Airlines Corp.'s home state of Minnesota after the two carriers merge, Delta's chief executive officer said.

This news is great for all of those going through the interview process with Delta. This is a good indication that you will have a job after the merge with Northwest Airlines.

Flight Attendant Jobs for Air Macau

Hundreds compete for Air Macau flight jobs

Sunday, May 4, 2008
CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Some 700 applicants showed up at an Air Macau recruitment drive Saturday to fill 15 flight attendant vacancies.

The Macau-based Air Macau operates 10 flights between Taipei and Macau, and four flights between the southern port city of Kaohsiung and Macau on a daily basis, carrying mainly Taiwanese business people based in China.

Air Macau CEO David Fei commended the applicants as ambitious and well prepared, adding that attitude was the key factor in the selection process.

Fei said that Air Macau's stewards and stewardesses from Taiwan are the airline's most popular among its passengers.

"I have great confidence in our Taiwanese flight attendants, " he said.

One of the applicants Janet Chen, while waiting in a long line for a preliminary interview, said that she hoped the stewardess job would allow her to become more familiar with social protocol and that she would learn how to better interact with people.

"It is the dream of many young women to become a stewardess, " said Chen."If I do not succeed today,I will seek other opportunities to fulfill my dream."

Another applicant Wang Tze-kang said he was interested in serving people.

"Being a flight attendant will give me an opportunity not only to serve passengers, but also to travel," he said.

Amid concerns that Air Macau and the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonnair would suffer if direct flights are launched between Taiwan and China, Air Macau has been planning for the possible change.

The incoming Kuomintang government is likely to allow only Taiwanese and Chinese airlines to operate the direct cross strait route.

Saturday's recruitment drive was not only a bid to hire more Taiwanese employees, but was also part of the airline's preparations for future development in the aviation market, according to Vickie Shih, general manager of Air Macau Taiwan office.

"Air Macau's temporary mission of serving Taiwanese businessmen (in China) seems to be ending," Shih noted. "The airline will now promote Macau as a destination, rather than just a transit stop."

Flight Attendants still needed for military deployment

Overall, 14 AFSCs are on a deployment tempo that calls for airmen to be gone half the year, every year. Twenty-one AFSCs deploy for six out of every 18 months.

In addition to security forces, the enlisted career fields with a requirement to deploy for half the year are: airborne battle management systems; flight attendant; air traffic controller; airfield management; intelligence applications; imagery analysis; Germanic crypto-linguist; network intelligence analyst; aerospace maintenance superintendent; logistics plans; utilities systems; historian; linguist debriefer; and interpreter/translator.

If you have been accepted for Flight Attendant training

With the way the industry is going, high fuel prices, and cut backs for the airlines. Once you have been accepted for training, I highly recommend you start your training as soon as possible. For two main reasons. Number one: Seniority is everything in your career as a Flight Attendant. The better seniority you have the better trips you will be able to hold and the sooner you can get off reserve. Number two: Now that the airlines are scaling back, they will now be scaling back on hiring. Usually once they train you, they will want to keep you on, but if you haven't started training, there is a good probability that they may postpone your training indefinitely.