Dubai: Emirates yesterday revealed it would invest Dh400 million to establish a flight training centre at the Dubai World Central development in Jebel Ali to train local pilots.
The Emirates Flight Training Academy will be able to train up to 400 students at a time, helping to address the shortage of pilots — a major concern for the global aviation industry.
The academy will incorporate its own Flight Training Organisation (FTO) which will allow Emirates, for the first time, to train its UAE national cadet pilots in Dubai.
"The aviation industry is growing at a phenomenal rate and a critical element in this growth is trained pilots. As well as training our own UAE national cadets the academy will have the capacity to train a large number of ab-initio pilots from other carriers and will set the benchmark for training excellence in the region," said Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates airline and Group.
Construction of the academy is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2012 and completion is targeted for the third quarter of 2013. The fully integrated facility will comprise classrooms, student accommodation, ground-based simulators and flight training.
Tough position
"The aviation industry is facing an unprecedented challenge," William Voss, President and CEO of the US-based Flight Safety Foundation, said in a keynote address at the Gulf Aviation Training Event conference at the Dubai Airshow.
"We have upgraded technologies while neglecting the development of the people who need to use them. That leaves us in a very tough position as we struggle to develop a massive new generation of aviation," he added.
Emirates said it was working closely with industry leaders to ensure the facility has state-of-the-art equipment and trainers, in order to meet worldwide aviation training best practice.
"As an industry leader it is incredibly important to us that the cadets trained at our facility meet the high standard set by the industry. Emirates has a strong relationship with our current cadet training providers, however we feel the time is right to introduce our own cadet pilot training facility. The Middle East has become a major international hub for aviation and this Dubai-based training centre will play an important role in fuelling the region's pilot requirements," added Shaikh Ahmad
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