Dubai: Emirates Group is hiring more than 11,000 additional employees in the coming year as it gears up for an expansion drive and prepares to receive 20 new aircraft over the next few months.
Hihglighting its growth plans, the company that runs Emirates Airline and dnata announced on Tuesday that the massive hiring will increase its staff size by six per cent by March next year.
Half of the new recruits will work as cabin crew, to be based out of Dubai. The others will fill positions to support the company's engineering, airport services and corporate functions.
Additional staff will also be assigned in dnata, which provides aviation and travel services in 90 cities across 38 countries.
Emirates, whose order-book stands at more than 280 aircraft as of November, is one of the biggest employers in the Middle East, with 75,000 workers in its current payroll. More than 12,000 individuals have been with Emirates Group for over a decade, and almost 3,000 have worked with the company for over 20 years.
“More than anything, these facts illustrate the type of employer we are and the opportunities that we can offer,” said Abdulazia Al Ali, executive vice president for human resources, Emirates Airline Group.
The company receives a huge volume of applications regularly. Last year, nearly half a million online applications for more than 2,000 vacancies were received from over 227 countries.
Individuals seeking opportunities in the aviation industry also log an average of 1,500 job-related enquiries on the airline's social media channels every month.
The company had earlier scheduled invitation-only and open day cabin crew assessment events between February and March in India, Sri Lanka, Australia and many other destinations.
Emirates added last year at least 27 planes to its fleet, including 13 Airbus A380s and 12 Boeing 777-300ERs. The company takes pride in having the industry's biggest wide-body passenger fleet of 218 aircraft, aside from 14 freighters.
Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are also on a recruitment drive. Other airlines are likewise expected to hire additional employees as the region's aviation industry is on expansion mode.
"We expect this industry to be of increased overall relevance and importance in the local recruitment arena as it undergoes further accelerated expansion and innovation in the lead up to Dubai Expo 2020," said Suhail Al-Masri, Bayt.com vice president for sales.
"We also expect far more recruitment activity in the years ahead as new roles are created and existing capacity is expanded significantly, offering unparalleled living and work standards and some of the best salaries."
