BA launches IT recruitment drive

British Airways is looking to boost the IT headcount at its Newcastle information management operations in the resurgent airline's first major recruitment drive since the post 9/11 collapse in the travel industry.

Despite a company-wide senior management cull at BA, the airline will be increasing the 280 headcount in Newcastle by recruiting 30 staff in a variety of high-level roles ranging from project managers and business analysts to web design architects.

BA CIO Paul Coby said the airline is looking for IT excellence and business understanding and can offer recruits the opportunity to build their career there backed by further training and "up-skilling".

He said: "There is the chance to work on a wide range of leading-edge technologies in an exciting business for a company that doesn't have any doubts about whether technology matters."

BA's Newcastle IT Centre of Excellence opened in 1991 and now handles the design, development and support for some of the airline's key systems, including ba.com, the Employee Self-Service (ESS) staff intranet and flight operations planning.

Paul Binks, manager of the Newcastle operations, told silicon.com BA is interested in people with a wide range of skills, energy and the ability to learn. Some of the specific areas of technical expertise sought include Java, Flash, systems integration and service oriented architecture.

He also said Newcastle can offer a better lifestyle for those looking to escape the southeast: "You can live in the countryside and still work for a blue-chip company."

One of the projects new recruits can expect to work on involves imminent refreshes of the ba.com website as it continues its evolution from selling BA travel to becoming an integrated online package of related travel and holiday products.