South African aviation consultancy company Hi-Fly Marketing has launched the first dedicated aviation sector personnel agency for Africa, Hi-Fly Talent & Resourcing, the enterprise announced on Monday. The purpose of the new venture was, in the company’s words, “to match airlines, aircraft maintenance providers and other aviation businesses across the continent and beyond with qualified and competent African executives and specialist talent.”

“Covid-19 has shaken up the industry and the job market,” pointed out Hi-Fly founder Alexandra Guillot. “It requires a fresh and innovative approach to talent spotting and recruiting.”

The new agency will be able to exploit its parent company’s wide-ranging knowledge and experience of the African aviation industry, as well as its contact network. It will thus be able to fill a gap in the market that non-specialist agencies could not effectively cover.

“Africa’s aviation industry boasts a wealth of talent,” she highlighted. “According to a recent [International Air Transport Association] study, the sector employed over 500 000 people in 2018. About half of them were employed by airlines or handling agents with airports, air navigation services, aerospace manufacturing and other service providers accounting for the other 50 percent.”

The new agency was focused on providing the best quality candidates for aviation sector posts, whether on a temporary or permanent basis. It was particularly concerned with qualified specialist professionals, including aeronautical engineers, airport and operations managers, fleet managers, network schedulers, safety managers and technical sales and marketeers.

“As the industry starts to rebuild, there is an opportunity to establish effective teams using regional expertise,” she observed. “We know how crucial and challenging it can be to find the right candidates in Africa, but we are opening the door to those new recruitment possibilities by matching aviation businesses with the best professionals right across the continent.”