Dubai hosts AFM Global Pilot Training Organisation Leadership Summit

The event brings together over 50 of the world’s leading flight training organisation owners and chief executive officers.

The industry leaders together operate a combined training fleet of over 1,086 aircraft and are currently training over 8,000 pilots per year.

The summit held at the pilot training facilities of Emirates Flight Training Academy (EFTA), saw the industry leaders engage in panel discussions to enhance the industry's response to the growing demand for pilots. As the airline industry rapidly recovered in 2022 and 2023 the flight training industry has been slower to recover and is facing numerous challenges in the scaling up of training operations to meet the demand for pilots.

Maximilian Buerger, managing director of AFM.aero, said: “Our mission is to connect the global pilot training stakeholders similar to how the airline industry and Dubai have connected the world! AFM shares, on a weekly basis, pilot training industry relevant developments with over 16,000 stakeholders including over 400 airlines. We wanted to use our knowledge and network to host this summit and support the industry in scaling training operations to meet the growing demand for pilots. Due to the geographical diverse global attendance of industry leaders, the phenomenal summit venue at Emirates Flight Training Academy, and fantastic partners this summit provided the ideal platform for attendees to share knowledge and enhance collaboration within the industry. I would like to thank Capt. Abdulla Al Hammadi, the Emirates Flight Training Academy Team, Mark Kammer, and the Dynamic Advanced Training Team for their support in making this event happen – the world’s most global meeting of pilot training industry leaders.”

Capt. Abdulla Al Hammadi, Divisional Vice President Emirates Flight Training Academy, added: "This is the second edition and was another great opportunity to host this event at Emirates Flight Training Academy during the 2023 Dubai Airshow in collaboration with AFM. We constantly and closely monitor industry trends and it’s strikingly clear that the pilot shortage is increasing at a higher rate than the training industry can support.”

“Our aim at this summit is to share information and discuss the challenges we anticipate for the future of the pilot training industry. We believe that by working together, we can collectively tackle the global pilot shortage to produce better skilled pilots and, in turn, safer skies. A major challenge is finding well qualified, experienced flight and ground instructors who are able to support the younger generations as they make that journey towards the right-hand seat of a commercial aircraft.” Shared Capt. Al Hammadi.

Mark Kammer, Director of Operations at Dynamic Advanced Training, commented: “Dynamic Advanced Training is honoured to be working hand-in-hand with AFM.aero to facilitate the pilot training industry’s networking event. As a UAE grown aviation training organisation and part of the Khansaheb Investment Group, we are especially proud that Dynamic’s cutting-edge facility located in Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub at Dubai South will serve as a networking platform and allow us the opportunity to demonstrate reality-based training to a wider audience.”