Thousands attend Southampton Airport careers fair

The airport’s first careers fair yesterday saw thousands of people in queues snaking around the inside of the terminal and the length of the building outside.

Demand was so great it also brought traffic to a standstill on roads into the airport.

Some jobseekers even told how they had waited for more than two hours to be seen.

Airport bosses admitted that they had been surprised at the interest in the posts which included baggage handling and check-in staff, catering, cleaning, IT, security, engineering, retail and customer service.

Some of the roles were permanent but others were seasonal during the coming year.

The fair involved around 30 different companies at the airport, including BAA, Servisair, Flybe and NATS (Air Traffic Control) as well as Hampshire Police.

People were offered the chance to fill out and return the forms instead of queueing, but many people decided they would rather wait it out.

Recruitment contact details for the largest employers at Southampton Airport were also provided, to let people know how and where to apply for jobs.

Dave Hunter, 40, from Shedfield, near Southampton, who was over halfway down the queue and had waited an hour and 15 minutes, said: “There’s obviously a lot of people in for a job, we have just got to wait and find out what it’s about.

“It would be better if you could get information about all the different jobs on offer before you get to the door.”

Another person, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s causing congestion around the airport.

“It makes you realise there are 1,000s of people looking for jobs.

“I think they should have held it elsewhere. It was like a cattle market, not pleasant for people who are unemployed.”

Jan Halliday, director of marketing and communications, said: “We’re really sorry if people have had to wait in queues to actually see the right people, but we have tried to offer different options to people so they don’t have to wait in the queues.

“The interest was greater than we had anticipated, but I think that shows the popularity of the airport as a place to work.

“It does reflect the number of people looking for new roles in this region and also the time of year – a lot of people over Christmas think I want to do something different in 2011.

“We will learn from what has happened today and it will be bigger and better next time and we may look at a new venue.”

Emily Richards, who organised the stand for Hampshire Police, was recruiting volunteers to take on roles like a special constable and had already had at least 40 applications.

She said: “There have been an awful lot more [people] than we expected.

“It’s a good turnout and it’s good to be able to promote our voluntary opportunities to the public so it can help them develop their personal skills to apply for full time jobs.”