Region faces critical pilot shortage
The recruitment push comes as Airbus forecasts the Middle East will require more than 60,000 pilots by 2034 to support regional aviation growth, according to recent reports.
“You see today with air transport and air travel, there is really good demand,” Al Redha said. “We are seeing the demand increasing day by day. There will be a need for more pilots.”
The Emirates Group has hosted more than 2,100 recruitment events in 150 cities globally, receiving 3.7 million applications in the last financial year. Since 2022, the Group has onboarded more than 41,000 professionals, bringing its workforce to 121,000.
New graduates earn their wings
Sebastian Piroddi-Botha, 21, one of this year’s graduates, praised the quality of instruction at the academy.
“All the instructors, everyone here, I’d say they’re actually the best in the world,” he said. “They built us into who we are. The instructors themselves instil that kind of confidence into us so that we can walk away from here, look at an aircraft and say, ‘I know what I’m going to do.'”
Piroddi-Botha, who will complete his training in January, plans to interview with Emirates immediately afterwards.
Meanwhile, Giada Macario, 22, traced her aviation ambitions to her first flight from Milan to New York at age five.
“My father was really joking and said, ‘Do you think you want to become a pilot?’ And my mother and I started laughing,” she recalled. Her parents are glassmakers with no aviation background, making her journey particularly remarkable.
Dhanusha is a Chief Reporter at Gulf News in Dubai, with her finger firmly on the pulse of UAE, regional, and global aviation. She dives deep into how airlines and airports operate, expand, and embrace the latest tech.
Known for her sharp eye for detail, Dhanusha makes complex topics like new aircraft, evolving travel trends, and aviation regulations easy to grasp. Lately, she’s especially fascinated by the world of eVTOLs and flying cars.
With nearly two decades in journalism, Dhanusha’s covered a wide range, from health and education to the pandemic, local transport, and technology. When she’s not tracking what’s happening in the skies, she enjoys exploring social media trends, tech innovations, and anything that sparks reader curiosity. Outside of work, you’ll find her immersed in electronic dance music, pop culture, movies, and video games.
