UAE jobs: Emirates to hire for new roles as it opens massive crew training centre

Dubai: Emirates is actively recruiting pilots for three key programmes — Direct Entry Captains, Accelerated Command, and First Officers non-type rated, Dubai's flagship carrier announced Tuesday.

The hiring push comes as the airline officially opened its new state-of-the-art flight crew training centre, a facility that is central to its strategic growth and fleet expansion.

Aspiring pilots are invited to apply for a chance to join what the airline calls "The world’s largest international and most profitable airline with the biggest fleets of A380s and Boeing 777s."

The new centre will be crucial for training pilots for Emirates' upcoming fleet of Airbus A350s and Boeing 777Xs, it said. In July, Emirates Group - the airline's parent company - announced it is recruiting more than 17,300 professionals across 350 roles this year.

Designed to be a "game-changer" in the aviation industry, the purpose-built training centre was constructed with an investment of $135 million. The facility, which spans an 63,318 sq. ft., is strategically located near other Emirates training facilities in Dubai.

"Our new Emirates Crew Training Centre is a game-changer and has a significant role to play, both in the industry’s ecosystem and Dubai’s emergence as a global aviation hub," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group. "Every dirham of our Dh500 million investment is already delivering value."

Sheikh Ahmed added that the centre "sets new firsts and serves as best-in-class in aviation training, shaping our programmes and preparation for our future fleet."

The new facility houses six full flight simulator bays, with two already in use for A350 pilot training. Four more simulators, including those for the Boeing 777X, are set to be installed in the next couple of years.

The simulators are integrated with an innovative Pilot Support Station (PSS), an industry first conceptualised in-house by Emirates. The PSS allows pilots to prepare for their training sessions in a fully immersive environment, configuring their flight deck and even building flight plans before stepping into the simulator. This technology, according to the airline, "streamlines preparation" and allows pilots to "maximise learning outcomes."

Once fully operational, the new centre will expand Emirates' pilot training capacity by an impressive 54 per cent, offering a solid 130,000 training hours annually across its 17 simulators. The facility will train up to 1,000 pilots every year for each simulator.

The centre has also embraced sophisticated 3D printing capabilities to create complex components for training equipment, which is expected to generate an annual saving of up to Dh1 million.

The airline's first A350 full-flight simulator has already received the highest rating, a Level D qualification, from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), a testament to its advanced technology.