Yeah still 4K total time before they will hire you..3500 for the interview as long as you get the 4K by the start date.
The supposed reason is if they upgrade in 3-4 years they want guys to have sufficient total time to hold left seat (6K total time for command...which isn't unreasonable). If they hired 2000 hour F/O's they wouldn't be ready after 3-4 years.
That all being said, i can't see them continuing to attract the number of people they need without either lowering the time requirements, increasing the package considerably, or offering bases outside Dubai. Out of all of those options I would suspect the 2K jet hours requirement will be lowered at some point. In the meantime they are getting enough people to keep the training department busy so it won't change until they start running out of people with the requirements they want currently.