Adam Lake, chief pilot for Frontier Airlines’ Orlando, Florida base, was on the hunt for pilots, mechanics, and more on Wednesday at the Sun ’n‘ Fun Job Fair, held in the Aerospace Discovery Museum at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. The one-day event hosted 14 aviation companies that are seeking qualified candidates to hire into aviation careers.

Frontier Airlines has been coming to the job fair, co-sponsored by JSFirm, for all five years it has been in existence. “Each year that we've done this, we've met with wonderful candidates across all of the disciplines in aviation,” Lake told AIN. “I know for sure pilots have been hired from here.”

Ashley Williams, at the booth next to Frontier, is training and recruitment coordinator for GE Aviation at its Lafayette, Indiana plant, where the Leap engine is to be assembled. This is the first year that GE Aviation participated in the event.

“We are still in start-up mode, so we have about 150 test assembly technicians that we're looking to hire with their airframe and powerplant [mechanic] certificate,” she explained. Ultimately the plant will crank out thousands of the high-efficiency Leap engines for airliners all over the world. Williams just needs a few excellent technicians to help GE Aviation make that happen.

Sun ’n‘ Fun and JSFirm moved nearly 400 pre-registered job applicants through the event. The hope, according to Abbey Hutter, marketing coordinator at JSFirm, is that job fairs like this one can begin to alleviate the looming pilot and mechanic shortages.