By Akram Medhat
Lt. Gen. Younis Al-Masry, Minister of Civil Aviation, issued directives to accept all 380 male and female Egyptian pilots who passed all the required tests to work at EgyptAir, instead of limiting the number accepted to 260 pilots as stated in the company's announcement. This is the first time this number of pilots has been accepted in one batch in more than 5 years.
The pilots are set to be distributed across the company's fleet of various types, with 280 pilots joining EgyptAir Airlines and 100 pilots joining EgyptAir's domestic and regional airline, EgyptAir Express.
For his part, Captain Ahmed Adel, Chairman of EgyptAir Holding Company, said accepting all the successful pilots comes in line with the national carrier's ongoing fleet modernization plan, the increase in the number of aircraft and the expansion of the company's route network, with new aircraft set to join EgyptAir from next March.
This comes in light of the Ministry of Civil Aviation's keenness to take part in solving the problem of unemployed pilots, which has been a source of complaint in recent years, as the number of new Egyptian pilot graduates, whether from the Egyptian Aviation Academy or internationally accredited academies, has grown compared to the actual operations and workforce requirements of EgyptAir and the private airlines operating in Egypt.
Adel stressed that the applicant pilots were carefully selected after passing the highest testing standards in this field, conducted in several stages including psychological tests, English language, technical tests in various aviation sciences and a personal interview, to achieve efficiency and commitment to the professionalism always recognized in Egyptian pilots.
