6 Tips To Find A Job in The Booming Dubai Airline Sector

It looks like the airline industry is the place to be in Dubai at the moment. Why? Because Dubai has become one of the most visited tourist hotspots in the world and has experienced a 12.8% annual growth in passengers numbers, with much of this growth being driven by the increasing numbers of international events that are taking place in Dubai.

Of course, all this increased growth in traveller numbers to Dubai can’t happen without the support of the airline industry and the knock on effect is that the airline industry in Dubai is continuing to boom. Just this month Emirates and Quantas formed an alliance to increase the amount of onward travel options for visitors to Dubai.

As well as this, FlyDubai is planning to add 50 planes to its fleet over the next four years, and they have just added three planes to their fleet and are planning to add another 8 planes to their fleet over the next year. This means that Dubai is clearly facing a serious increase in demand for airline professionals and will be a hotspot for airline jobs over the next year, particularly at FlyDubai.

As a result of all the excitement and focus on the Dubai airline sector I thought it would be a great time to give some tips and advice on how candidates can find and secure a job in the Dubai airline industry, which is currently experiencing a boom in jobs. Please read on for my 6 top tips.

1. Airlines recruit for a range of positions including: pilots, flight attendants, dispatchers, schedulers, mechanics, baggage handlers, gate personnel, groomers, reservations staff – so there are likely to be opportunities to suit most types of job seeker.
2. Make sure to visit the website of any airline you are interested in as most of them will list their jobs here. (FlyDubai’s careers site is here). Also look for jobs boards that are local to the airline headquarters/key transit hub as this is where you are likely to find ground jobs advertised.
3. A great way to start your airline career is by getting a ground based job like a baggage handler or gate job and you can work your way up from here. You don’t always have to try to go in at the top.
4. Visit the airports and network with the airline counter staff (wait until they are free and not busy) and find out how they got the job at the airline and started their airline careers. Lots of airlines have referrals programmes and if you can impress one of them they may refer you to the HR department.
5. Join one or more aviation forums (either on-line or in Linked-In) and become a regular contributor to discussions as you will be able to network with a range of airline staff which could of course lead to information about jobs that have not been posted yet. Since FlyDubai is hot for jobs at the moment, I recommend that you follow them on Linked-In at this location.
6. When making your application and attending interview place an emphasis on your communication, presentation, conflict management skills and customer service skills as these are four crucial skills in the airline profession. You should also show that you are safety conscious.

About the author

Kazim Ladimeji is the Director of thecareercafe.co.uk—a resource for start-ups, small business and job seekers. It includes a blog with career and small business advice articles. Kazim is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and has been a practising HR professional for 14 years.

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