EMIRATES AVIATION ACADEMY HELPS TO ADDRESS PILOT SHORTAGES
(Posted 28th November 2013)
Emirates, the award winning national airline of Dubai, has responded to both, constant misgivings from in particular African airlines over recruiting ‘readymade‘ pilots from the continent and leaving local African carriers to struggle as well as their own recognition to get more actively engaged in pilot training to meet their future pilot requirements, with launching a 137 million US Dollar project of a brand new aviation academy.
Located at the new Dubai World Central airport in Jebel Ali on a 150 hectares site, the new facility will be able to teach initially some 400 students at the same time, will have their own fleet of trainer aircraft, an own runway, an own airport code, an own control tower plus flight simulators, lecture rooms and accommodation on site, aimed to support the already in place national pilot cadet training programme the Dubai government has put into place to attract more nationals into an aviation careers. Some 150 teaching and administrative staff will be employed when the new facility is ready in 2015 and once graduations start turn out about 160 pilots each year, who according to information obtained will already have firsthand experience with jet aviation, an advantage when they are placed as pilot cadets on commercial flights before earning their third stripe as a First Officer.
(A model the new Emirates Aviation Academy on display at the recent Dubai Air Show)
Recent forecasts published by Boeing during the Dubai Air Show talked of a pilot requirement of up to 40.000 in the Middle East and the Gulf region over the next 20 years, with a further 50.000 aircraft technicians and engineers needed to keep up the pace of aircraft maintenance. Emirates has nearly 400 new aircraft on order to be delivered over the next 10 – 20 years and urgently needs to recruit the pilots, cabin crew and ground personnel like technicians to actually operate these new aircraft when they start to arrive. At the Dubai Air Show did Emirates place the largest order in aviation history, with 150 firm orders for the new B777X, a further 50 options for this aircraft type and another 50 Airbus A380’s worth just under 100 billion US Dollars at current list prices.
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