PARIS: Airbus has filled more than half of the 13,000 positions it expects to create in 2023, as aerospace manufacturers try to boost staff numbers to meet soaring demand, the European planemaker said on Wednesday.

Planemakers and aerospace suppliers are wrestling with shortages of workers, from engineers to machine shop operators, which is holding back plans to ramp up aircraft production needed to meet soaring travel demand.

Airbus said it had filled more than 7,000 positions so far.

The hires put the company on track to fill the remaining positions this year, which will support increased plane production and other goals, Thierry Baril, Airbus’s chief human resources officer, said at the Paris Airshow.

Airbus wins record 500-plane order from India’s budget carrier IndiGo

The company’s commercial aircraft division has reached 60% of its recruitment target.

Of the 7,000-plus hires, 29% are aged 28 or below, a trend that Baril expects will continue through year’s end, he told Reuters in an interview.

“It’s remarkable because when you have close to one-third of your resources joining the company which are representing the future you can think about the future differently,” he said.