DUBAI, U.A.E., 7th August 2006 – Committed national recruiter, Emirates Airline, has received an overwhelming response for its Emiratization campaign. The Human Resource department’s summer calendar, packed with tests and interview sessions, has recorded one of the highest number of job applicants ever in the airline’s decade-plus national recruitment programme.

Almost 1100 young Emiratis, including a number of women candidates, have applied for the Dubai-based airline’s very successful and much-in-demand Cadet Pilot and Engineering training courses.

Attracting an average of thousand applicants every year, the two-year Cadet Pilot and five-year Engineering programmes, to which Emirates has allocated AED 45 million, has yielded many success stories.

Mahmood Al Khaja, who joined the airline in 1991 as a national recruit with the position of Trainee Engineer, recently took over the helms of Emirates’ Engineering Planning and IT Systems as Vice President.

Recognising Mahmood’s potential early on, Emirates invested heavily in his personal development and career. The airline nominated Mahmood for the prestigious IFA Len Gore Scholarship, and facilitated his one year on-the-job training with British Aerospace, Rolls Royce and British Midland Engineering – three major aviation organizations.

Through Emirates’ nomination in 2003, Mahmood was also one among 30 candidates selected from various Dubai-based organizations for the first-ever HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Programme for Leadership Development.

“I have spent an exciting and challenging 15 years at Emirates, starting on a humble footing as Trainee Engineer and climbing the ranks to presently head the airline’s Engineering Planning functions,” noted Mahmood Al Khaja. “Emirates’ provided opportunities have significantly enhanced my negotiation, risk-taking and leaderships skills, and made me a well-rounded professional.”

Mahmood Ameen, recently promoted to Vice President Engineering Projects, represents yet another success story. Joining the Emirates group as a Trainee Engineer, Mahmood was soon designated as the airline’s Technical Representative in Seattle and Toulouse to oversee the inaugural delivery of its Boeing 777s and Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Years later when Emirates embarked on an ambitious aircraft acquisition programme and became the world’s first airline to operate the ultra-long range Airbus A340-500; it was Ameen and his team of dedicated professionals who worked with Airbus engineers to define specifications of the aircraft. The A340-500 which allows Emirates to fly between any two places on the globe with no more than a single stop is currently operated on its Sydney-Christchurch, Melbourne-Auckland, Osaka, and New York routes.

Ameen noted: “Owing to my job profile, I was involved with the exciting and ambitious phases of Emirates’ fleet expansion programme, as it introduced longer range aircraft capable of flying medium and long haul routes in line with the airline’s business strategy. Currently I’m occupied with one of the most stimulating projects of my career; working with Airbus engineers to prepare the super-jumbo A380 aircraft to Emirates’ exacting specifications.”

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