Wannabe flight attendants overloaded Delta's recruitment website by flooding to apply for jobs

06.09.2024 - 10:17 / insider.com / Ed Bastian

The chance to become a Delta Air Lines flight attendant proved so popular that the airline's application site appeared to crash.

Delta opened flight attendant applications on Wednesday for the first time in over a year. As one of the "Big Three" US airlines, it proved highly popular.

"Due to extremely high demand for Delta flight attendant positions, some applicants reported difficulties [with] the application page on September 4," an airline spokesperson told Business Insider.

"We have since made adjustments to allow for quicker access," they added. "We thank applicants for their interest and their patience."

The airline's announcement was also updated with an editor's note warning that the application experience "may be slow" due to a "large influx of candidate interest."

On the r/cabincrewcareers subreddit, one user posted a screenshot of the site displaying an error message that said it was "temporarily unavailable." Another user said it took them five hours to complete their application "due to the site giving me so much trouble."

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Last year, flight attendant applications reached new highs as airlines rebounded from the pandemic.

Delta told Inc. it had received 65,000 applications for a record 5,000 jobs in 2023. Eve Rogers, Delta's general manager of in-flight services recruitment, added that there would be fewer places this year.

Throughout September, Delta representatives are hosting information sessions for aspiring flight attendants in Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Washington state.

The hiring process involves five stages. After submitting an application, there's a virtual job tryout, a video interview, and an in-person event day that includes another interview. Successful applicants would then receive a conditional job offer and undergo seven weeks of training.

Travel news site Paddle Your Own Kanoo suggested that the influx of Delta hopefuls could be related to United Airlines only opening its applications for less than 24 hours last month.

Delta's IT setback follows July's CrowdStrike outage, when Delta was the worst-affected airline, with CEO Ed Bastian estimating it cost the carrier $500 million.