The most I ever saw in a week was 200 after Ansett went down the tubes. There was a rumour about Etihad increasing their package to attract personnel but that is a rumour that I have heard every few months since I arrived. Here are the wise man's words:
Emirates has increased the remuneration packages for its pilots by 10 per cent in the past year, according to a senior executive at the airline.
Industry experts say the shortage of talent overall, but especially pilots, in the Middle East is responsible for pushing up wages.
“Generally speaking, there will be a requirement for quite a few pilots over the next few years,” said Captain Alan Stealey, divisional senior vice president of flight operations at Emirates. “The market is becoming tougher for pilots. That is around the fact that there is tremendous expansion, for instance, in the lowcost carriers within Europe, within India and China.
“In the Gulf, there is a massive demand for passenger carriers and thus, the demand for talent is significant.” Commenting on the raise in pilots’ packages, Captain Stealey said: “Rental and education costs in Dubai have gone up. We do provide our captains, for instance, with villas. We look every year at the total package of the airline for the pilot workforce, and then we look at across the industry. Our pilots do well with regards to the total package.” He added that Emirates has an average of 16 to 25 pilots coming through each week and thus, there is “no shortage”.
With the current network of about 1,559 pilots [to fly 94 passenger aircraft], Emirates is looking to recruit about 900 pilots between now and the end of the decade, according to Captain Stealey.
In the fiscal year the airline is in now, Emirates is recruiting 380 pilots.
“It is the biggest ever for the airline because of the size of the delivery. Every aircraft that comes through, on an average, requires between 15 and 20 pilots. This fiscal year we will have recruited and trained 380 pilot,” he said.
Next year, however, Emirates does not have such a large delivery programme for pilots. “It is mainly because of the delay in deliveries of the Airbus A380 aircraft. We are looking at 250 pilots to be recruited next year. That is the rough plan,” explained Captain Stealey.
Furthermore, Emirates claims to receive between 15,000 and 20,000 job applications a month for pilot positions. And with almost “10 per cent” of Emirates’ pilot workforce consisting of UAE nationals, the airline has pilots from more than 76 nationalities, Captain Stealey
