How Aviation Job Search has changed since 1999

We’re celebrating 25 years, and we’ve only just got started. Since 1999, we’ve been on the same roller coaster as the rest of the aviation industry, helping recruiters at some of the biggest airlines and aviation companies overcome everything the last 25 years have thrown at us, while also helping connect them with the best aviation talent there is. Yes, those are a few grey hairs, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

In this article we’re going back in time - a time before sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and Youtube existed - to showcase some of the highs and lows of the last 25 years.

1999: Aviation Job Search becomes the first aviation industry job board

Aviation Job Search was created when we identified a need within the aviation industry to help airlines and MROs recruit better talent, faster. While it initially focused on engineering and technician roles, this first-mover advantage quickly transformed into rapid growth whereby additional roles were added, including pilots and ground crew. Allowing companies to bypass recruitment agencies by using our innovative post a job system, it put recruiting back in the hands of recruiters.

The site continued to expand with more roles, more jobs and attracted more job seekers creating further opportunities to expand the product to become more than just a job board.

2001: Wikipedia launches

2001: The 9/11 terrorist attacks across America caused a huge drop in flight numbers in the years since, and changed airport security for ever

2002: LinkedIn launches

2003: Wizz Air - one of our advertisers, launches

2001: Our CV database is launched, allowing recruiters to headhunt

Our first-mover advantage continued to fuel our growth as we launched CV Discovery. This allowed job seekers to upload their CVs and recruiters the ability to access them. By filtering by role or location, talent acquisition managers were able to shortlist and headhunt aviation talent, creating a two way recruitment process where job seekers could find recruiters, and recruiters could find job seekers.

2005: Job emails allow recruiters to target passive candidates by role or location

Email was and still is one of the most popular methods of finding a new job, and with hundreds of thousands of candidates already signed up to our emails, we opened up our database to recruiters with Targeted Emails. As well as being able to target by location or role, the ability to include custom branding and messaging means that recruiters can directly reach the right candidates at the right time. Since 2005, this has expanded so that companies can also promote courses, recruitment open days and events as well as just jobs.

2008: Flydubai, a low-cost airline based in Dubai and another one of our advertisers, is launched

2010: Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull caused enormous disruption to the aviation industry, causing the largest air travel shutdown since World War II.

2019: We held our first in-person recruitment event

We welcomed over 1,200 candidates to our first Aviation Job Expo at Gatwick Airport. Including the likes of BA Cityflyer, BAE Systems, CAE, Bombardier and more. Including CV writing workshops, meet-and-greets with leading aviation recruiters and more, this was a huge success for candidates, recruiters and Aviation Job Search. 

2020: The Covid-19 pandemic decimated the aviation industry 

2020: We support aviation professionals who lost their jobs from the Flybe collapse

The pandemic was the final straw for Flybe which collapsed in March 2020. We quickly took the initiative to create a support centre for displaced employees with online resources to help them update their CV, get it seen and find alternative employment.

2020: We rebuilt and relaunched Aviation Job Search

Just as soon as we broke down virtual walls with our job expo, everybody quickly became familiar with the same four walls in their bedroom, spare room or wherever they were confined to as the world adjusted to the realities of a pandemic.

Harking back to our first mover advantage that set us apart in 1999, instead of standing still we used this as an opportunity to redeveloped Aviation Job Search from the ground up. Our new branding marked our statement of intent as we rebuilt everything from our job board to CV Discovery from the ground up.

2021: We launched the Aviation Career Hub to help people further their careers

As the world emerged into a new normal, we helped to accelerate the recovery of the aviation industry by launching the Aviation Career Hub. With articles, a forum and more, this gave aviation professionals the tools they need to grow, develop and get back into the sky. 

This was the perfect bedfellow to our job board, keeping aviation professionals in the loop, helping them find work and support their peers.

2021: We launched Social Takeovers to help companies showcase their company culture

We found that post-pandemic, more people than ever were valuing company culture. While our job board was still a central part of the job hunting process, social media was playing an increasingly large part in the process. Luckily, with our experience we had built a huge audience of aviation professionals, and with Social Takeovers we could give our clients direct access to our audience.

For 24 hours, companies can ‘take over’ our socials. We work with our clients to create a marketing strategy for that day where through video, images and more, an aviation company can promote not only their vacancies but what it’s like to work for them.

Many Social Takeover campaigns have generated hundreds of thousands of impressions, views and clicks, while also helping build brand awareness and trust.

2024: We make advertising more accessible than ever with Prime Aviation

We wanted to create a whole new way of advertising, scalable to every kind of business within the aviation world, a type of solution that is within reach to a small family-run flight school to a huge international airline and everything in between. Enter Prime Aviation - a simple, affordable and scalable monthly subscription where for just £27.99, advertisers get access to monthly benefits such as CV Discovery access and free job adverts. What's more, it can be quickly scaled up or down - for example urgent recruitment needs can be addressed through exclusive half price members' discounts on job advertising.

2025: We celebrate our 25th birthday - but we’re just getting started

Our first mover advantage back in 1999 is what empowered us to become a leading job board for the aviation industry. As well as developing new products and creating ways to help those in the industry upskill themselves, we are working on further improving our platform and the response we provide to our customers. Here’s to 25 more years!

Find out more about our 25th birthday discounts