I just spoke to my mate who is starting training April 25th after succeeding in the Jan AUH AD (poor thing is totally exhausted as she already works for Etihad's Customer Contact centre and is swamped with all the confusion over the volcanic ash crisis!)
As I suspected the candidates successful in the recent Assessment Days in Bahrain, Cairo, Amman and one forthcoming in Beirut will be asked to begin training ASAP. (The tentative May, June or July dates)
Logically speaking, and from my experience of the AD, say 5 candidates from each are successful, that's an extra 20 or so joiners on training date courses. Still plenty of room for the rest of us....Or what if they have a certain quota to meet and must fill the remaining spaces (i.e the ones remaining after those who have been called recently have still expressed their interest and availibility) with Arabic Speakers only?
My pal is going to ask HR once the backlog of cancelled/rerouted flights is cleared; how many courses are tentatively planned at the moment, how many spaces availiable and whether or not they are already full.
Hopefully have a clearer idea in the next week or so, once the ADs are completed!