The Emirates Group is planning a “mammoth” global recruitment drive in 180 roles as it boosts its workforce for its next major growth phase.
The Dubai-based international aviation company is seeking to hire cabin crew, pilots, engineers, IT professionals and customer service agents at both Emirates and data, it said on Tuesday.
“We are using the latest technologies such as digital assessments, artificial intelligence and other top-notch recruitment systems to shortlist, select and respond to candidates in the most efficient and effective ways,” said Oliver Grohmann, senior vice president of human resources.
“Our focus is on recruiting the best talent, the brightest minds and those most fit for the various roles that will support and drive our future growth and expansion.”
Emirates Group ended its financial year on March 31 with more than 102,000 employees, after it added 17,160 to its workforce in various roles throughout the year. In the last financial year, it received about 2.7 million applications globally for positions across the organisation.
The group's hiring spree – which it described as “mammoth” – comes as the airline expands its network after a strong rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic and adds capacity with the delivery of new Airbus A350s starting in mid-2024 and Boeing 777X wide-bodies from 2025 onwards.
Emirates Airline is ramping up operations and growing its workforce as it forecasts growth amid a “buoyant travel market” and an “optimistic outlook overall”, it said.
Emirates' plans to boost its employee base comes as the global aviation industry faces a labour shortage in all areas of the business, from pilots to baggage handlers, ticket agents, flight attendants and aircraft mechanics.
The International Air Transport Association expects passenger traffic to recover to 2019 levels in 2024, with North America leading the pack in 2023, followed by Europe, Latin America and the Middle East in 2024, and Africa and the Asia-Pacific region in 2025.
Encouraged by the increased travel demand, airlines continue to invest in new aircraft and technology to ramp up their operations after the pandemic forced them to ground aircraft and retire older models.
However, the pace of hiring has been relatively slow compared with the quicker-than-anticipated recovery in travel demand, after many aviation workers were laid off during the pandemic and moved into other, more flexible occupations.
Still, UAE airlines such as Emirates and Etihad Airways have hired cabin crew and pilots during recruitment drives in cities all over the world as travel demand rebounded. They have received more applications than the number of available vacancies.
The global commercial aviation industry will need to recruit and train an estimated 1.18 million workers by 2032 to fill vacancies arising from retirement, attrition and the expansion of the aviation industry, CAE said in its 2023 Aviation Talent Forecast report in June.
The Middle East's commercial aviation sector's demand is for 28,000 commercial pilots, 22,000 commercial maintenance technicians and 78,000 cabin crew in 10 years, the Canadian aviation training company said.
The roles Emirates is recruiting for and how to apply
In its latest call for cabin crew, pilots and other staff, Emirates highlighted the requirements for each type of role, while referring applicants to its website for more details.
To hire cabin crew, Emirates is organising open days and invite-only events across six continents, covering hundreds of cities all year round. It said the recruitment process is designed to be completed within a day, and candidates are contacted within 48 hours of the assessment.
The airline is also hosting a series of open days to recruit pilots in the UK and Ireland – specifically in Dublin and Manchester, and at London Gatwick and London Stansted – in August, it said. This comes after holding similar events in Budapest, Madrid and Lisbon in June.
An online information session is scheduled for July 19 at 1pm UAE time, the airline said.
Since 2022, the airline has added more than 900 new pilots on its three recruitment programmes – direct entry captains, accelerated command and first officers.
Emirates' engineering arm is planning open days in Australia, Canada, Brazil, South Africa and the UK in July and August.
The airline is looking for 75 structural technicians along with more than 400 positions in aircraft maintenance engineering and engineering support roles.
The additional engineering and technical staff are needed as the airline undertakes a large cabin retrofit programme and prepares to take delivery of the A350s and 777Xs in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
The Emirates group also aims to recruit more than 400 IT professionals for a range of roles in software engineering, DevOps, hybrid cloud, agile delivery, technical product management, digital workplace, cyber security, IT architecture, innovation and service management.
Customer service agents are also in demand at Emirates Airport Services, dnata, marhaba service and the contact centres.
The group is also seeking to hire for roles in dnata, Emirates SkyCargo and in airport services, it said.
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Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
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Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
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The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
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MATCH INFO
Everton v Tottenham, Sunday, 8.30pm (UAE)
Match is live on BeIN Sports
RESULT
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Chelsea: Jorginho (83'), Abraham (87')
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Fixtures
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Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
