Etihad Flight College expands its fleet

Etihad Flight College Cadet Pilots and their instructors alongside the new Embraer Phenom 100E

Etihad Flight College has recently taken delivery of the first of four Embraer Phenom 100E.
This will be the first flight school in the world to use the Phenom 100E in the initial phase of flying training.

The twin jet training aircraft will begin service with the flight college in July 2016. A second aircraft will arrive in Al Ain later this month. Two further jets will be delivered in early 2017.

The Phenom will be used to instruct students on the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) course. MPL is an competency based approach to flying training using multi-engine aircraft.

The ferry flight, via four continents and covering over 12,500 miles, was commanded by Etihad Flight College’s MPL program manager, senior first officer Timothy Schoenauer. The 18 sector route from Brazil went via two Caribbean islands, Florida, Virginia, Maine, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, Belfast, Amsterdam, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, before arriving Al Ain.

The order for four Embraer Phenom 100E was announced in June 2015. Once delivered, the four new aircraft will bring number of aircraft in the trainer fleet to 22 – which also includes 10 Cessna 172SP Skyhawk, six Diamond DA42NG, and two EXTRA 300 aircraft.



There are 186 cadet pilots currently in Etihad Flight College training programmes, 122 of whom are Emiratis. In addition to training pilots for Etihad Airways, Etihad Flight College also trains pilots for two Etihad equity partner airlines – Alitalia and Air Seychelles. Etihad Airways currently employs over 2,200 pilots and operates a fleet of 122 Airbus and Boeing aircraft, with over 204 additional aircraft on firm order.