The Significant 7
7 is a significant number when EK need to recruit and not lose pilots. I have no doubt that the powers that be are deaf and blind to any or all warnings and would need 10 similar groups to do the same before they acknowledge the problem.
The pilots would have left 'officially' for personal reasons, but as we all know it is primarily because of the rot in conditions and subsequent decline in life style. The irony is that any resignations leaves those behind with more to do and the cycle continues. We cannot recruit and train fast enough to keep up with new routes and new aircraft. Any resignations are significant ones and they will find any means to factor us to make up for the loss. The problem is that as the expansion continues they never catch up with the numbers they need and what starts as a temporary measure becomes the norm.
Emirates is facing significant problems. The 'record' profits are being used to sure up the crumbling economy. Much of it is paying for or guaranteeing government debts on completed projects all around Dubai. We can all see the incomplete road projects that have stopped pending payment. 50 sub-contractors for example are owed money on completed works at the airport alone. Some are owed hundreds of millions, one over half a billion, and Emirates, the airline, is being used as a guarantor. If they default another financial earthquake will follow.
Externally they are threatened by increasingly protectionist governments heavily lobbied by their airlines. However you feel about the justification for this it WILL cost EK more.
With restrictions on new routes and more aircraft on the way, with penalties attached if deferred, the future is a turbulent one.
IMO one of, if not, the main problem that will effect not only EK but other airlines will be the availability, or lack thereof, of suitable pilots. The shortage is being felt now. EK is not the airline it once was and is facing increasing competition for new pilots and demand for their existing ones. Other airlines need pilots too, lots of them. Demographically a significant number of pilots are retiring as they reach 65. In the interim there has been no significant training to replace them. Any new training will only fill the RHS. It is the shortage of LHS experience on the exact types we fly and on the routes we operate that are in demand. Boeing have already warned that 20,000 new pilots (and engineers) are required EVERY YEAR to fill current and planned airline requirements.
A few years ago you would only rarely hear of pilots going to Korean, Thai, Turkish, Vietnam etc. Now it is becoming relatively common and with ANA due to enter soon (looking specifically for 777 pilots to fly their 787 on tailored expat terms), more will be looking at their options.
Interesting times ahead.
Last edited by Marooned; 16th Dec 2010 at 11:32.