Aviation in Eastern Europe – Lithuanian start-up surpasses Ryanair’s numbers

At first glance, aviation industry in Eastern Europe may seem quite miniscule, however over the past few years this sector in the region experienced a significant growth spurt with some companies from countries like Lithuania now competing with industry giants. Just in a few years, recently founded Lithuanian company AviationCV.com providing aviation personnel recruitment solutions became the biggest free online aviation job board in the world.

AviationCV.com is a Lithuanian personnel recruitment and leasing start-up founded in 2013 that set up what is now the biggest and fastest growing aviation job board worldwide. The website provides free aviation personnel database for airlines, MRO companies and aviation specialists. While AviationCV.com is one of many personnel recruitment platforms worldwide, usually companies of this type tend to be regional in scope. The Lithuanian company on the other hand is global with aviation specialists from countries in European Union, South America, The Gulf region and, increasingly, North America. The monthly traffic of the website exceeds 350 000 users each month – 90 times more specialists than pilots working for Emirates worldwide.

“Our website targets a very niche audience – mostly pilots, engineers, and airlines looking for personnel, so since the audience is so specific, once our website reached 350 000 monthly traffic we were over the moon. However once we hit this target our goals only got bigger – this spring we surpassed the most popular aviation job board in the world and became number one,” shares AviationCV.com CEO Skaiste Knyzaite. At the moment the AviationCV.com database is filled with approximately 150 000 aviation professionals – 12 times more than all of the people currently working for Ryanair. So, if needed, the Lithuanian website could supply all of Ryanair with aviation specialists at least 10 times, and since its inception, hundreds of airlines including Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air and Emirates recruited thousands of aviation specialists with the help of AviationCV.com The website currently has over 2000 job listings online which is about the same amount of flights performed daily by Ryanair, however it is not the only service AviationCV.com provides. More and more airlines are partnering with the company to organize pilot roadshows. “A roadshow is, in a sense, an airline exhibition looking to attract new employees to their company. The event is organized to look for a specific type of specialists, for example, A320 pilots. Roadshows are highly effective and time saving, because the airline can attract 50 new employees for their company in just one day,” adds S. Knyzaite.

Thus, it is no wonder why each year the number of roadshows organized increases. In 2017 alone, AviationCV.com organized 14 roadshows for various airlines which, interestingly, is the exact amount of minutes the short flight from London to Norwich lasts. The flight earned fame when the Arsenal football team opted to take a plane, since the team manager decided not to subject the players to a two hour long train ride to Norwich. But the company’s accomplishments don’t end with the roadshows. AviationCV.com’s website is also popular on social media – number of followers exceeds 160 000. “We invest a lot of time into developing our social media strategy – the goal is to keep our followers interested by not only posting job ads. In addition we produce a lot of relevant and engaging content, so we can proudly say that we reached this number of followers by working hard to appeal to our audience,” says S. Knyzaite. Moreover, the work of AviationCV.com does not stop with personnel recruitment – the company also contributes to bringing new professionals into the field. Notably, despite prestige and a lucrative career, finding professional and qualified pilots is not an easy task. “To become a commercial aircraft pilot one has to invest over $100 000 for their education. It’s not enough to just obtain a pilot’s license – to work for an airline a pilot must fly for at least 500 hours on a specific aircraft type.

So one of the services our company provides is to assist aspiring pilots get certified by helping them build the number hours,” explains S. Knyzaite. According to IATA, the number of airline passengers will double by 2036. So to meet the incredibly fast growing demand of air travel, aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus predict that in the upcoming years the industry will need thousands of more pilots. “Some airlines are preparing for pilot shortage even now, by raising their salaries. Even regional airlines are doubling salaries for their employees to keep the, so a pilot career is becoming very lucrative,” finishes S. Knyzaite.