The Emirates Flight Training Academy in Dubai South has a fleet of Cirrus SR22 G6, Embraer Phenom 100EV and Diamond DA 42 planes. Photo: Emirates Group
The Emirates Flight Training Academy in Dubai South has a fleet of Cirrus SR22 G6, Embraer Phenom 100EV and Diamond DA 42 planes. Photo: Emirates Group
The Emirates Flight Training Academy in Dubai South has a fleet of Cirrus SR22 G6, Embraer Phenom 100EV and Diamond DA 42 planes. Photo: Emirates Group
The Emirates Flight Training Academy in Dubai South has a fleet of Cirrus SR22 G6, Embraer Phenom 100EV and Diamond DA 42 planes. Photo: Emirates Group

Emirates training aircraft involved in 'incident' at airline's Dubai academy


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An Emirates training aircraft was involved in an “incident” on Thursday at the airline's academy in Dubai.

No one was injured, a representative of the Dubai airline told The National.

“The Emirates Flight Training Academy can confirm that today a Cirrus SR22 G6 training aircraft was involved in an incident at the academy,” the representative said.

"The incident will be investigated and we are fully co-operating with the authorities.”

No further details were disclosed.

A Cirrus SR22 G6 training aircraft in Dubai. Photo: Emirates
A Cirrus SR22 G6 training aircraft in Dubai. Photo: Emirates

Launched in 2017, the academy in Dubai South offers pilot training and has a fleet of 30 aircraft, including 22 Cirrus SR22 G6 planes, five Embraer Phenom 100EV aircraft and three Diamond DA 42 jets, according to its website.

The airline had ordered the three DA 42 aircraft from Austria's Diamond Aircraft in a deal worth €4 million at list prices in March.

The facility, which is equal in size to 200 football fields, has 36 classrooms, six full-motion flight simulators, an independent Air Traffic Control Tower, and a dedicated 1,800-metre long runway.

In February, Emirates announced plans to build a $135 million advanced training centre for pilots as it ramped up operations to meet strong air travel demand.

The centre will accommodate six full-flight simulator bays for its future Airbus A350 and Boeing 777X aircraft, the airline said.

The 5,882-square metre training unit is expected to open in March 2024, next to the existing Emirates training complex in Dubai.

The new building will give Emirates the potential to expand its pilot-training capacity by 54 per cent a year.

Across the airline’s training buildings, pilots can use 17 full-flight simulator bays offering a capacity of more than 130,000 training hours a year.

In line with the scheduled delivery of Emirates’ first Airbus A350 aircraft, the airline’s newest training college will start training its first pilots for the aircraft by June 2024, the airline said.

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1 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 4:51:51

2 David Dekker (NED) Team Jumbo-Visma

3 Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal 

4 Elia Viviani (ITA) Cofidis

5 Matteo Moschetti (ITA) Trek-Segafredo

General Classification

1 Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 12:50:21

2 Adam Yates (GBR) Teamn Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:43

3 Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:03

4 Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:43

5 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Rating: 3/5

Updated: October 05, 2023, 4:08 PM