British Airways has doubled its referral bonus In an effort to alleviate a staffing shortage

Employees who convince friends or family members to join British Airways in a number of key roles will get a referral bonus that has been doubled.

The airline previously gave a £500 referral bonus, but it has since been increased to £1,000 to match the sign-on bonus for new recruits who pass the recruitment process.

The referral and sign-on bonuses demonstrate British Airways’ desperation to hire as many new employees as possible as part of one of the carrier’s largest recruitment campaigns ever.

The bonuses are focused on three crucial jobs where BA’s recovery from the pandemic is being delayed by a lack of personnel: cabin crew, ground operations agents, and transport services agents.

British Airways has been criticized in recent weeks for long arrival delays and lost bags, which have been blamed on a significant shortage of ground employees.

There have been instances where planes have been forced to depart without any passenger luggage due to a lack of workers available to load bags.

Because of cabin crew shortages, the airline is also obliged to cancel hundreds of flights every week. Last week, CEO Sean Doyle informed employees that even more flights would be canceled until the end of June, with the current disruption expected to last until September at the earliest.

BA has negotiated to costly ‘wet-lease’ deals with other airlines such as Finnair, Iberia Express, Vueling, and Titan to relieve some of the pressure. The contracting airline hires both the aircraft and the personnel from another carrier to operate their own services under a wet-lease agreement.

British Airways is also considering establishing a temporary cabin crew station in Madrid, where candidates with prior cabin crew experience might complete a short training course before flying BA planes.

A number of other airlines, notably easyJet and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, are experiencing staff shortages. Both JetBlue and Southwest have announced that they are reducing their timetables owing to a personnel shortage in the United States.

Flight rates have risen in recent weeks as a result of a significant comeback in travel demand combined with staffing restrictions, but economists are afraid that rising jet fuel prices would cut into potential profits.