Or are companies looking for a ghost? The shortage of qualified candidates is a recurring topic across air cargo conferences. Whether the discussion focuses on attracting younger generations or experienced professionals, the conclusion is often “we need to do more”. But what if the talent is already there, yet the industry is overlooking it because of requirements that are unnecessary for the role? In many countries, especially in continental Europe, the local language is regarded as one of the main barriers for potential candidates, even though English is the lingua franca of communication in aviation.***
Self-created talent shortage
“In a global industry such as air cargo, cross-cultural experience should be recognized as a business capability, rather than being viewed as a compromise employers must make or something a candidate needs to overcome,” Bradley Baker of Transform Coaching says.
He works with senior leaders in air cargo and the tension that he sees is that companies tend to mistake a self-inflicted talent shortage for a genuine skills shortage in the market.Regarding the hiring process, Baker adds: “When a candidate progresses successfully through several stages and a new language or cultural requirement appears late in the process, the question is no longer simply whether the candidate is qualified. It also raises questions about how clearly the organization understands the role it is recruiting for.”
Fluency in the local language can be essential in some positions, for instance in logistics. Employers should therefore be specific regarding the context in which the language will be used, the level genuinely required and how that capability will be assessed. There is an important difference between testing a job-related skill on the one hand and selecting for familiarity with a particular local profile on the other.
Sometimes the recruitment process reveals a gap in the candidate’s skill set. At other times, it reveals that the employer’s stated international ambitions and its actual expectations are not yet aligned.
“While learning the local language is important for long-term integration, job announcements for positions that do not require advanced language skills should also be available in English. This would help companies attract a broader pool of qualified international talent,” says Tamar Chelidze, who advises cargo and supply chain experts.
Companies often underestimate the value that international professionals bring
Several HR professionals declined to comment on this article, reflecting the sensitivity of a topic that sits at the intersection of recruitment, diversity, and business performance. One senior recruiter at a major international company shared their personal perspective on the topic on condition of anonymity, emphasizing that these are their own views.
They explain “I don’t believe there’s a simple solution. Some roles genuinely require a very high level of language proficiency. However, I do think companies can better support hiring managers by making hiring decisions more evidence-based. Instead of relying on intuition or familiarity, they should define what effective communication actually means for each role and assess candidates against those expectations. At the same time, it’s worth asking ourselves: Are we evaluating the skills that matter, or are we letting uncertainty influence our decisions?”
Companies often underestimate the value that international professionals bring beyond their technical expertise. Moving to another country requires adaptability, resilience, and the ability to learn continuously. Those experiences often translate into creativity, fresh perspectives, and new approaches to problem solving.
Karolina Vikyol, an HR and talent professional based in Sweden, believes the challenge extends beyond language. Reflecting on her experiences working for international companies, she says that offering a different perspective or a more direct communication style was sometimes met with visible discomfort or resistance. “It’s possible to have a workforce that looks diverse on the surface while still expecting everyone to conform to the same cultural norms, communication style, and way of approaching work. In that sense, diversity becomes more about appearance than genuine inclusion.”
Perhaps the question shouldn’t only be, “Will this person fit our culture?” but rather “How could this person strengthen our culture?” The strongest teams are rarely built by hiring people who all think alike. They grow when different perspectives challenge assumptions, improve decisions, and help create a better culture for tomorrow.
International candidates get fewer opportunities
U Ahmed, DRA, IT and BBN are international candidates who shared their recruitment experiences in Europe. They explicitly requested that they remain anonymous in most cases out of fear that their comments could backfire on them. While these experiences cannot be considered representative of the entire industry, they described remarkably similar hiring experiences.
U Ahmed came to the EU despite expecting a promotion in 4 months as EMEA supply chain manager. He hasn’t been able to secure interviews for months despite not requiring visa sponsorship. He is considering returning to his country of origin, but he knows the opportunities are less lucrative on paper. That is, assuming he can eventually find a job in Europe.
DRA came to Germany from Kenya on a jobseeker visa before switching to a language visa and later to a Chancenkarte. Her bachelor’s degree in Business Management, specializing in Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, was officially recognized during the visa process. She invested more than €13,000 to meet Germany’s financial requirements because she believed the country valued skilled professionals.
“Despite applying for many qualified positions, I have only secured two non-skilled jobs,” she says. “I have also worked in the United Arab Emirates, where the environment was demanding but I felt judged by my performance. In Germany, I have often felt that I had to overcome assumptions before my qualifications were considered.”
“In global processes, local processes don’t necessarily work,” IT explains. “The resistance to change and the fact that English is in many cases only spoken at the top don’t facilitate the entry of international candidates,” she adds.
BBN comes from Eastern Europe and has over 10 years of experience working in the Netherlands. She wants to move to another European country. However, she believes that Eastern European and Arabic names get rejected more often. She submitted identical CVs under different names: the CV with the Eastern European name was rejected while she was called for an interview with the CV submitted under a Western European name.
What’s the return on investment for the candidate?
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) splits proficiency into A1/A2 basic levels, B1/B2 independent levels, and C1/C2 proficiency levels. A B2 level allows the individual to understand main ideas of complex texts on concrete and abstract topics and requires a minimum investment of 500 hours; at most European universities it is a requirement for joining bachelor’s programs.
The current level required by many European air cargo companies is C1, which is estimated to be an investment of €6,000 as common practice shows. Reaching this level will take students a minimum of 700 hours of study, and depending on the student’s native language, age, and exposure more than 1000 hours are often required.
Experienced supply chain managers in Singapore, Brazil, India, South Africa, or the UAE already speak their first language and English. To become employable in Europe, they are expected to invest hundreds of hours of their personal time. The return on that investment is uncertain. From the employer’s perspective, it’s effectively shifting part of the recruitment cost onto the candidate.
Language standards which don’t help
The air cargo industry continues to ask where the next generation of talent will come from. Yet before searching further afield, companies may first need to examine whether their recruitment practices are unintentionally excluding the very professionals they hope to attract.
Several international candidates interviewed for positions requiring proficiency at C1 level in three languages but were ultimately rejected. Although they met the stated language requirements, they believe their accents may have influenced the hiring decision.
Among the recruitment cases reviewed for this article, one stood out: a medium-sized company in Germany was looking to hire a candidate to take care of their customers in Munich, where speaking Bavarian, a distinctive accent in southern Germany, was considered essential. Between 12 and 14 million people speak Bavarian, while approximately 480–500 million people live in the 20 officially Spanish-speaking countries globally. Approximately 554 million people live in nations where French is an official or major language.
Language matters until it doesn’t matter
Magdalena moved from Germany to the UK around seven years ago and rebuilt her career from the ground up. Reflecting on her experience, she believes the UK employment market puts greater emphasis on potential and transferable skills. She hopes more organizations – particularly within the air cargo sector, where skills shortages remain a persistent challenge – will adopt a similar approach by recruiting for potential as well as experience.
Language matters. Integration matters. But so does the ability to distinguish between capabilities that are genuinely essential and those that have simply become long-standing assumptions. In a global industry built on international connectivity, this distinction may prove increasingly important.
***This article was prompted by discussions with professionals across Europe following two LinkedIn posts on language requirements in international recruitment.
