Flydubai to hire 600 pilots by 2016

Flydubai will need to recruit 600 pilots over the next four years to meet the needs of its growing fleet and serve its rapidly expanding route network, the Dubai-based airline today said in a statement.

The low-cost carrier, which already has more than 200 pilots, requires 14 – seven captains and seven first officers – to operate each of the 50 aircraft ordered from Boeing in 2008. The last of these aircraft is due to be delivered in 2016.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, said: “flydubai is possibly the world’s fastest growing start-up airline ever, which, along with being based in one of the world’s most exciting cities, has helped us attract some of the best pilots. Now with our fleet and network set to grow at pace in the years ahead, we are recruiting pilots of all type ratings aggressively to ensure we will have the staff to meet our operational requirements.”

First officer applicants must have a minimum of 2,500 hours, 1,000 of which must have been gained in multi-crew, multi-engine aircraft, fitted with modern electronic flight instrumentation systems (EFIS) with more than 10 tonnes operating weight. Captains, meanwhile, must have at least 5,000 hours, including 1,500 in command of modern (EFIS) multi-crew, multi-engine jet aircraft of more than 55 tonnes operating weight.

To support its external recruitment, flydubai has also implemented an in-house captain upgrade scheme. To be considered, first officers must have been with the carrier for at least one year and recorded 4,000 flying hours, with 1,000 of those in a Boeing 737, including 500 at flydubai.

“Since the scheme started last year, we have had 15 first officers successfully upgrade to captains, with more completing the programme every month. Through this, we want to take the best pilots from around the world and turn them into the best flydubai pilots,” said Al Ghaith.

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