Furloughed pilots to return to work at Continental

The United States based carrier, Continental, announced this week its intentions to recall some of its furloughed pilots.

The airline currently has 147 pilots who were furloughed during 2008 and 2009. The reinstatement of 111 of them in the coming months is due to the airline taking delivery of two new Boeing 777 aircraft later in the year.

The need for more pilots is further increased as a number of continentals current crew reach retirement age. The airline added that they hope to recall all of their flight crew who took voluntary leave or were forced to leave within a year.

The news will come as light relief to many air crew round the world who are in similar positions on leaves of absence or simply job seeking. The economy is beginning to creep in the right direction and summer travel this year is expected to be strong, meaning that some airlines are starting to look at staffing needs that will grow over the next few years.