New Airline Servicing The Gulf To Hire 700 More Pilots

Pilots with considerable experience in the cockpit of Boeing 787 Dreamliners are in high demand, as Riyadh Air has begun hiring.

Riyadh Air, the newest airline in the Gulf, is in a recruiting frenzy, hoping to bring on as many as 700 pilots in the next three years. One of the more ambitious employment plans in recent years inside the region's airline business, when you include in a sizeable cabin crew, engineering, and IT personnel.

The Saudi airline has begun recruiting its first group of pilots (around 20 people), and they're especially interested in those who have plenty of experience with wide-body planes like the Boeing 787-9 and 777.

Chief Operating Officer Peter Bellew stated that between the months of January and April of next year, the company anticipates anticipate a large influx of customers, as recruitment would continue through December of this year.

In April of 2023, Riyadh Air, with the support of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), began a multibillion-dollar deal to purchase 72 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The deal includes 39 aircraft that have already been confirmed and an option for an additional 33 wide-body jets. The order will be Boeing's fifth-largest commercial contract ever in terms of dollar amount, while the airline aims to purchase as many as 121 787 Dreamliners.

The United Arab Emirates is a potential market. In March of last year, Riyadh Air welcomed Bellew, a former executive at Ryanair. According to him, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the rest of the Arab world are among the airline's top recruiting regions for pilots.

In an effort to compete with regional airlines, who have also been on a massive hiring binge so far this year, the airline has shifted its emphasis to point-to-point travel.

According to Bellew, the carrier has received a large number of applications from people in Europe, Asia, and the Muslim world, all of which are rich in potential pilots, cabin attendants, and engineers. Employees, according to Bellew, would have the unique chance to be a part of the core team establishing a brand new company giving incredibly high-quality service to a place where there's demonstrated market interest.

The chief operating officer would not provide specifics about the compensation and benefits packages offered to new hires, but he did say that the airline provides its workers with competitive wages and a flexible schedule.

The company will continue to be holding gatherings in different cities for all people who have applied so that it can start a registry.

Once the first batch of cabin attendants has been hired, they will serve as the foundation for future trainees. Beginning in October, this procedure will continue until 2024. Pilots will be hired first, and flight attendants will follow over the next several months. The bedrock cabin crew will serve as trainers for successive cohorts until commercial service begins in 2025.

The airline also plans to construct a flight simulator for pilots and a training centre for cabin crew in partnership with Prince Sultan University by the end of 2024.

 

source: gulfnews.com