When I was a kid, I dreamt of travel and thought the best way to do this would either be a flight attendant or tour guide and in the end, I found another way – I’d have been a disaster as a cabin crew – but millions of kids had that same dream as me.

The best way to see the world is to fly and work.

Well, no longer – Covid has turned that once dream job into a nightmare and I fear that all that talk of recovery and pent-up customer demand will come to nought if we can’t get the people to serve on airplanes and work in hotels.

At the media event “The Travel Edit: Embracing The Unpredictable”, held by Booking.com this week, it was clear the most unpredictable element is not that of customer demand returning – the OTA’s research (See related report) shows 78% will say yes to any opportunity to travel, “we want to swipe right”, said Laura Houldsworth, managing director Asia Pacific – but that of people wanting to stay in travel, and wanting to work in travel.

Campbell Wilson, CEO of Scoot, said that currently the low cost airline was operating to 35% of its pre-Covid destinations and 33% of pre-Covid capacity “but if we were to go above 50% of capacity, we’d need to recruit 800 cabin crew this year”.

“There are physical constraints on how many people can go through our training system,” he said, adding, “One of the reasons why people wanted to become cabin crew is so they can travel, experience places. This is not possible now. They have to wear goggles, masks, they spend their time locked in hotel rooms.

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