Anticipating A Spike In Flight Requests After COVID-19, Emirates Holds Airbus A380 Pilot Recruitment

Illustration of the Airbus A380 fleet belonging to Emirates airline. (Wikimedia Commons/Per aspera ad Astra)

JAKARTA - Emirates airlines opened vacancies for pilots to fly their Airbus A380 fleet, along with the return of the superjumbo aircraft to serve a surge in flight demand.

The airline scheduled online information sessions for pilots and their families on October 4. They will also hold roadshows in various cities, such as pilot roadshows in Mexico City on October 13 and 14, in Panama City on October 15 and 16, as well as in Bogota on October 17 and October 18, according to its website.

"This airline now invites applications from experienced pilots to join the captain's program directly for the Airbus A380 fleet," Emirates said.

Emirates currently flies about 90 of its 166 A380 fleet units, planning to increase the number in the coming months.

"We need to fly 20 to 30 planes as soon as we can, but we will achieve it," said the airline president, Team Clark last May.

However, Emirates is waiting for maintenance and repair process before flying back, after being temporarily grounded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clark said the airline is likely to restore all of its A380 fleet services before the pandemic next summer.

In July, Emirates Group said it was planning a massive global recruitment in 180 positions, in order to increase its human resources. The positions sought include cabin crew, pilots, engineers, IT professionals and customer service agents for Emirates and DNAta airlines.

For the new pilot candidate, Emirates said a minimum of 3,000 hours of flight by wide-body Airbus fly-bywire such as Airbus A330, A340, A350, and A380. In addition, prospective pilots must also have a minimum of 7,000 hours of flying on multi-awaw and twin-engine aircraft, in addition to meeting other feasibility criteria.

Later, this new employee will join the 4,200 aviation crew group, including 1,515 A380 pilots.

Previously, 172 pilots had only joined three Emirates recruitment programs in the last five months.

It is known that Emirates pilots receive tax-free salaries, accommodation, educational allowances, as well as dental, health and life insurance.

The base salary for the captain who entered directly was 44,385 dirhams (12,084 US dollars) based on an average 85 hours of flying per month, according to the Emirates website. They also receive 730 dirhams for each hour above their monthly target.

They also get transportation with drivers to and from work, situate services, 42-day annual leave, business class flight tickets that have been confirmed for annual leave, concession cargo, travel benefits discounts for friends and family and other facilities, the airline said.