San Francisco

Airlines Look to Hire Hundreds to Address Staffing Shortage

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As many people are set to travel for the Fourth of July holiday, airlines are concerned their staffing numbers will not suffice.

To address staffing shortages, United Airlines held a career fair at San Francisco's Chase Center Wednesday in hopes to fill 800 positions amid record cancellations and delays across the industry.

San Francisco International Airport's spokesperson Doug Yakel said recent numbers in flight cancellations offer hope.

"Only about 1.4% of our flights have cancelled and that's well below the national average, which is a good thing," he said.

However, for millions of travelers around the country, air travel has been anything but smooth lately.

Hundreds of cancellations and thousands of delays have taken place since Memorial Day.

The airlines blame a combination of staffing issues, weather issues and other challenges.

At today's career fair, United Airlines was hoping to tackle the issue of staffing.

"We're hiring for ramp and flight, digital technology and our technical operations department," said Lori Augustine, Vice President for United Airlines.

"Demand is coming back fast. People wan to travel and this July 4th weekend is going to be our busiest weekend so far," she explained.

Many applicants interviewed and said they're eager to get started.

"They emailed me back and showed up before the big rush came, and I came in, I killed the interview," said applicant Chachi Fiso.

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