As the aviation world grapples with pilot shortages, Emirates Flight Training Academy’s (EFTA) third graduation ceremony held on 8 December welcomed 53 new pilots trained at their world-class facility into the industry. With the latest ceremony, EFTA celebrated crossing three major milestones, including graduating –international cadets for the first time since the academy opened its doors for non-Emirati cadets in late 2019, the largest cohort – more than 50 cadets and double that of previous events, more than 100 cadets since its first graduation in 2020.
At the ceremony, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive Emirates Airline and Group awarded certificates to the cadet graduates. Young cadets had successfully completed the rigorous programme with 900 hours of ground-based training and 250 hours of flight instruction to obtain their Integrated Air Transport Pilot License. EFTA also honoured the highest performing and most diligent cadets for their achievements across all facets of the training programme.
According to Oliver Wyman’s latest research, the aviation industry will experience a global gap of 34,000 pilots by 2025, which could increase to 50,000 given the impact of furloughs and retirements. Driven by a projected sharp increase in air travel demand, the Middle East region could face a shortage of 3,000 pilots by 2023 and 18,000 by 2032. Boeing estimates that by 2041 the gap will widen to 602,000 pilots globally and 53,000 in the Middle East.
Located in Dubai South, the Emirates Flight Training Academy combines cutting-edge learning technologies and a modern fleet of 27 training aircraft to train cadets with no previous knowledge of flying.
