Orlando International Airport holds job fair

The Orlando International Airport held a job fair on Tuesday. The job fair brought together approximately 50 companies representing a variety of fields like concessions, airline services, security, and parking and transportation.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Orlando International Airport hosted a job fair Tuesday to fill 1,700 open positions at the airport.

The job fair hosted 50 companies, from retail to restaurants, rental car companies, and federal agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and U.S Customs and Border Protection.

Around 300 people registered for the job fair, including Daniel Cott. He was looking to supplement a part-time job to support his son and parents. "Bills, basically, they never stop. [I’m] kind of looking for something during the day so I can cover my bills and expenses and stuff cause I only get like 20-30 hours [at my other job.]"

FILE - Travelers wait in line for TSA security screening at Orlando International Airport as the July 4th holiday weekend begins.

Student pilot Nicole Leon attended the job fair hoping to break into the aviation industry.

"[I’m the person that likes] to do every single position to kind of get the hang of it, how cargo handling works, airport transportation, before I get to the top."

Some companies were offering sign-on bonuses to help attract and retain employees. Menzies Aviation was offering $1,000 sign-on bonuses for new employees.

"There’s so much opportunity for work and if you have nothing else to do but work, there’s overtime," said Menzies Aviation Talent Acquisition Specialist Angel Flores.

Flores said the company had to lay people off in 2020 because of the Coronavirus pandemic but air travel is surging and they need to hire more than 100 people.

"Our employees are sometimes are stretched and have to work extra hours. Supervisors have to take that leadership and have to work extra hours to fill in that gap." Flores said they have openings for fuelers, ramp agents, customer service agents, supervisors, and managers.

OIA serves approximately 42 million passengers annually and includes a community of up to 18,000 employees.

There is a wide variety of employment opportunities in the airport. You can see complete job listings here, or sign up for job update alerts.

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