GATE 2013 speakers announced

The assembled industry experts will examine the industry’s ability to identify, acquire, train and deploy the pilots necessary to meet the rapid expansion plans of the Middle East airlines. 

The latest speakers to sign up are Captain Khalid Al Shammasi, Vice President Flight Operations for Saudi Arabian Airlines, Captain Jacques Drappier, Senior Advisor, Training for Airbus and Captain Ghassan Obeidat, Head of Crew Training & Standards/B787 Program Manager, Royal Jordanian Airline. They join speakers already confirmed from organisations that include flydubai, Qatar Airways, South African Airways and Emirates Airline. 

In addition, the summit’s confirmed keynote speaker to date is Michael Bell, Partner at Spencer Stuart. 

Summit Director Captain Ed Davidson, Vice President of Flight Operations for Porter Airlines, formerly Senior Vice President Flight Training at Emirates, will lead these industry experts in  addressing controversial topics, challenge processes and develop innovative solutions to support the aviation industry’s future plans. 

This year’s summit is set to create debate with the challenging theme ‘Breaking the Paradigms: Training the Gulf’s New Generation of Aviators,’ highlighting the shortage of pilots in the region. 

In addition to the summit, the GATE Pavilion will showcase flight training institutes in the Dubai Airshow exhibition hall. The pavilion has doubled in size compared to the 2011 event; with new to show exhibitors – CAE, Canada, Hellenic Aviation Training Academy, Greece, Frasca International Inc, USA and Eqyptair Training Center, Egypt. 

Sharief Fahmy, CEO, F&E Aerospace, organisers of the event commended the announcement of the speakers saying: “GATE 2013 has attracted such prestigious speakers as well as exhibitors and sponsors underlining how essential it is for policy-makers in flight training in the region to participate in this event.”