One Big Deal

Nov. 15, 2011
Looking for work? A Boeing report says the Middle East will need 36,600 new pilots and 53,000 skilled maintenance professionals to staff the region's airlines between now and 2030.

I don't know about you, but I started my day last Sunday reading the good news that Emirates airline had placed an $18 billion order with Boeing for 50 of the company's 777 jetliners – the largest commercial order by value in the American plane maker's 95-year history.

Including options to buy 20 more 777s, the total is worth as much as $26 billion.

The Dubai government-owned carrier made the purchase at the Dubai Air Show. According to Reuters, Emirates plans to lead the efforts by Gulf-based carriers to challenge European and Asian carriers to establish the region as a major East-West hub.

That's not the only reading I did over the weekend concerning the Middle East, all of it underscoring the type of exuberance for the future sorely lacking in most over parts of the globe.

According to the most recent Boeing Current Market Outlook, more than 2,500 planes are expected to be ordered by airlines in the region over the next two decades. European manufacturer Airbus predicted Monday the new plane market will be worth more than $347 billion for the Middle East by 2030. It estimates that Mideast passenger numbers will grow 6.4 percent annually, much higher than the predicted world average increase of 4.8 percent.

Looking for work? The Boeing report says the region will need 36,600 new pilots and 53,000 skilled maintenance professionals to staff the region's airlines between now and 2030.

Boeing expects that it will also require 1,000 new pilot instructors each year to train the future aviators of the Middle East, and says to look for new online and mobile-device training, which will appeal to the world's younger people long since used to moving their fingers across a tablet than turning the pages of a text book.