Bonneuil-en-France (France) (AFP)

A year ago, Perrine, 26, touched on her childhood dream: to be a flight attendant.

But the Covid-19 has stopped its flight to put it back on the path of its first profession, insurance.

At the apprenticeship training center (CFA) for air trades in Bonneuil-en-France, very close to Le Bourget airport north of Paris, where Perrine received her training, the class room for hostesses and stewards is plunged into silence, the chairs are piled up, the seats for the fictitious passengers remain hopelessly empty.

A little over a year after its inauguration in September 2019, the 8,000 m2 site looks like a ghost school.

In the vast hangar which houses a Falcon business jet and a Super Puma helicopter for practical work, only about twenty apprentices are busy around workbenches.

At the start of the school year, "the welcome speeches were a bit delicate," recognizes their trainer Pierre-Henri Greze.

"I have a majority of students who are anxious, worried about the future," he says.

The number of students at the start of the 2020 school year fell by half, with only 300 apprentices or work-study trainees, in training courses ranging from BAC Pro to BTS, including certification of Cabin Crew Members (Cabin Crew Members).

The training of flight attendants and flight attendants are totally at a standstill, technical training (structural or avionics mechanic, aeronautical technician, etc.) is down by 30%, those in airport reception reduced to minimum portion.

The air jobs, just before the crisis, "it was a boulevard, we had difficulty finding candidates", especially in mechanics, explains Véronique Flavigny, director of the CFA.

In 2019, companies in the aeronautics sector had recruited 8,000 work-study students, a workforce that had doubled in 10 years with an air traffic growth rate of 3 to 4% per year on average.

The Covid-19 brought this dizzying ascent to an abrupt halt.

- Want to get up in the morning -

Airbus alone has announced the elimination of 15,000 jobs worldwide, including 5,000 in France.

On the airline side, Air France has announced the elimination of 8,500 jobs.

And after a 60% drop in global traffic in 2020, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a return to pre-crisis levels is not expected before 2024.

For Ms. Flavigny, it will be necessary to find the means to pass the bottom of the wave, as much for the sustainability of the site as for the students now often condemned to unemployment.

To ensure the survival of the CFA, "we have managed to find solutions for 2021", but beyond that "it all depends on how it will resume and how we will be supported", adds the director, who has already resorted to all possible aid offered by the government.

As for the students, morale is sometimes at half mast but often determination takes over.

"Should not give up and give it all. Maybe in two years, the company will need arms and will recruit us", hopes Marotea Archer, 21, a pincer in hand.

Perrine Chaumet is not very optimistic for the moment.

"Even if we move heaven and earth, we cannot continue the job of our dreams with a crisis like that", regrets the one who had taken the time to perfect her English to achieve her dream before graduating in early 2020 with the emergence of the coronavirus.

"At the end of January, I started to apply in insurance and in administrative professions, because I see that the situation is not improving, and we do not know if it is for several months, several years", continues -she.

But once the turbulence has passed, she intends to come back to the cabin: "I had time to see that this is what I want to do. That this is what makes me want to get up in the morning. ".

© 2021 AFP