yeah, i do hold an FAA PPL. From what i see , very few people have flying experience, but i dont think that matters, given that they are offering ab-incio training ( from scartch) . It would definately help u though if u hav flight experience, i was taking to one of the interviewers after the assesment, i asked them that same question about ''what if u already hold a PPL licence?''. His reply was that it depends all with the UAE Aviation Administration or GCAA. But he thinks that if i get in, i would jump certain things from the course, things that i already know, although they say that they wont put me ahead of all others from my generation.
Also during the assesment they asked a few questions about aviation, geographical stuff and general knowledge stuff, those questions were asked to all of us verbally, but i dont think those questions were to assess any of us. who knows... e.g. they show a picture of an airport overview on the screen, and they ask ''who knows which airport this is?''
maybe on the next stage, the fact that i am a private pilot aready will help. Cus i was reading about the psycho motor test they are gonna do on the next stage and it turns out i ve done stuff like that before... so i guess the experience will help...
And i applied not long ago, early on June, i guess i was lucky cus i gota reply from them 3 days after, they asked me to go to the first stage last thursday.