Two UAE carriers – Emirates and Etihad Airways – have started their recruitment drives again after a period of consolidation and a hiring freeze, owing to the global economic slowdown, according to a report by Flight International, an aviation magazine.

Both the carriers had frozen headcounts in order to control costs in the wake of significant declines in yield brought in by the downturn. Emirates' President Tim Clark was quoted by Flight International as saying that the "economic meltdown" has resulted in "possibly a three- to five-year paradigm shift in the way yields have dropped".

An Emirates spokesperson confirmed the move to Emirates Business. "To clarify, the unpaid leave offered to our cabin crew earlier this year was on a purely voluntary basis," said the spokesperson.

Emirates in April this year offered its staff up to six months unpaid leave as an option, which came into effect on May 1, 2009.

The carrier, which employs 27,000 people (including divisions that support other parts of the group), ceased recruiting in February/March this year. Flight International quoted Clark as saying says that with "growth, in terms of aircraft induction, continuing apace the lines crossed in September and we're recruiting 494 cabin crew between now and February".

He added that flightcrew hiring has also restarted.

Etihad's Chief Executive Officer James Hogan on the other hand, said: "The challenge all year has been yield. We're seeing yields in some sectors pushed down to 2006-7 levels." He was quoted as saying this in a report.

He said as revenue suffered in the face of yield declines the airline was able to "claw back more on costs in the second quarter, a big part of which was freezing headcount".

Hogan said the airline is now recruiting again, but "every job has to go through an HR review board and has got to be essential to the business".

Furthermore, Emirates, according to the report, is taking 22 widebody aircraft in the current financial year ending March 31, 2010, and would boast a fleet of 15 Airbus A380s by the middle of next year.

Etihad, meanwhile, is adding 11 single- and twin-aisle aircraft during the 2009 calendar year, but then enters a period of consolidation with only four additions in 2010 and four in 2011, as per the report, with deliveries beginning in 2012 of the 100 aircraft ordered at last year's Farnborough air show.

The airline yesterday signed $1bn aircraft financing deal. The carrier for the first time signed transactions backed by export credit agencies as part of a billion-dollar aircraft financing programme for 2009 and 2010.