Bahrainis scaling greater heights
Posted on » Saturday, March 28, 2009
FOURTEEN Bahrainis were awarded their commercial pilot licence from Ayla Aviation Academy at a graduation ceremony held at King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba, Jordan last night.
The two women and 12 men were among 17 cadets to graduate, with the others are from Lebanon, Jordan and India.
This is the first group of Bahrainis and females to graduate from the Aqaba-based academy, which has been operational for almost two and a half years.
The graduation ceremony for the group, known as the Charlie, featured speeches from Ayla chief executive officer Marwan Atalla, Gulf Air chief people officer Ahmed Al Banna and several cadets.
"You are the future leaders," was the message graduates received from Mr Atalla and Mr Al Banna.
"The mission statement of Ayla is that graduates are future leaders and not just pilots," said Mr Al Banna.
"To those joining Gulf Air I say Gulf Air supported you and will continue to support you and be at your service."
The speeches were followed by a video of the highlights of the cadets' activities at Ayla, a distribution of awards by Mr Al Atalla and Ayla chief captain Jamal Qumoq and a cake-cutting ceremony.
The graduates were: Abdulla Al Khan, Ahmed Aseeri, Ahmed Ismaeel, Ali Kowaitan, Duaij Al Khateeb, Fatima Hassan, Isa Khadem, Issa Ayyoub, Khaled Al Khalo, Maitham Al Saffar, Mohammed Hasan, Nilufer Mehta, Omar Albinfalah, Talal Elhajj, Waad Al Doseri, Yaqoob Yaqoobi and Yousif Al Meamari.
Gulf Air flight crew recruitment manager Captain Aud Al Tauqi and Ayla board of directors also attended the event.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Mr Al Banna told the GDN that Gulf Air had sponsored 11 of the Bahraini cadets.
He said these graduates would get first priority for a job at Gulf Air. Now they had graduated they would be called for an interview with Captain Al Tauqi and be given an assessment.
He said he was very proud to see that women had graduated from the training course.
"We have four pilots in Gulf Air that are women, two Bahrainis and two expats and now we have three graduates (one of the graduates, Ms Mehta, is Indian, but based in Bahrain)."
Mr Atalla said on the sidelines that he was impressed with Bahrain's level of high school education and he was happy to see women in the Middle East entering the industry.
Mr Atalla said there had been significant interest in training Bahrainis at Ayla and expected many more students from the country to qualify from the academy.
The commercial pilot licence with instrument rating training costs $90,000 (BD34,000) and includes accommodation, transportation, uniforms and headsets.
Mr Atalla said Ayla's training focused on creating leaders and professionals.
"It's not just about flying, it's a lifestyle, we give them activities and sports to teach them team building," said Mr Atalla.
"Our slogan is: 'We train captains not just pilots', and the main difference between the two is leadership."
Ayla was founded by the Near East Group and Atlantic Flight Training, UK. It has instructors from the Middle East, Europe and the US.
The academy's flight training facilities are located at King Hussein International Airport in Aqaba, Jordan, while the ground training is conducted at Shwaikh Mall, in the town centre.
The academy can take up to 150 students but it currently has about 100 of which 47 are Bahrainis. The latest group of nine Bahrainis began their course in January 2008 and will graduate in August.