Jin Air, hit hard by high oil prices due to the Middle East war, abruptly postponed the onboarding of 50 new employees.
According to the aviation industry on the 12th, Jin Air postponed to the second half the onboarding of about 50 candidates who were scheduled to join as flight attendants on the 11th.
Earlier, Jin Air finalized 100 hires through its first-half open recruitment, and 50 of them, half the total, have already joined and are in training. The remaining 50 were also slated to join in the first half, but Jin Air notified them that the start date would be changed to late September to early October, after the Chuseok holiday.
In addition, Jin Air took drastic measures by cutting 176 round-trip international flights and indefinitely delaying payment of the annual safety incentive. Specifically, Jin Air reduced 45 flights on eight routes, including Guam, last month, and 131 flights on 14 routes, including Phu Quoc, this month.
Behind the drastic measures by airlines is the sharply rising price of jet fuel. With the "Strait of Hormuz," through which more than 20% of international crude passes, effectively blocked due to the fallout from the Middle East war, last month's average price of Singapore jet fuel surged to $214.71 per barrel. That is 2.5 times higher than two months earlier, before the war broke out.
Fuel expense is known to account for typically 30% to 40% of an airline's operating expense. A rise in oil prices directly leads to a deterioration in operating profit. Yang Seung-yun, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities, said, "Since the Iran situation began, domestic airlines have declared emergency management and moved to defend by scaling back low-yield routes, but a short-term deterioration in profitability is inevitable due to the increased fuel expense burden."
A Jin Air official explained, "We were inevitably forced to adjust the onboarding date in light of the emergency management stance triggered by the surge in international oil prices after the Middle East war." The company added it is not canceling the hires of those who passed the final round.
Low-cost carriers have also been maintaining an emergency management stance and, starting on the 8th, have been accepting unpaid leave applications for June from flight attendants. T'way Air introduced two months of unpaid leave, from May to June, for flight attendants last month. Aero K accepted unpaid leave applications from all employees for May.