Virus crisis upends hopes for aviation careers

One year ago 26-year-old Perrine was on the cusp of realising her childhood dream of becoming a flight attendant. Then the Covid-19 pandemic arrived and Perrine is now on track for a job in insurance instead. At the CFA centre near Paris's Bourget airport where Perrine has been training in mock aircraft cabins, the seats for passengers are now empty and there are no attendants. Most of the 8,000-square-metre (86,000-square-foot) facility is silent. In a vast hanger that holds a Falcon business jet and a Super Puma helicopter for technical training, just a couple of dozen students are busy at work benches. Making the traditional welcome speech at the start of the academic year in this very unusual year "was a bit touch and go", said instructor Pierre-Henri Greze. "Most of the students are concerned, anxious about the future," he added. The number of apprentices at the start of the 2020 academic year was down by half to 300, with the courses for flight attendants at a complete halt as airlines shed cabin crew jobs to match the vastly reduced number of flights they are operating. The mechanic and technician students are down by a third. Story has more.<br/>