Some 300 Saudi pilots are unemployed

The Saudi daily al-Watan issued on Wednesday said that some 300 Saudi pilots are suffering unemployment as from their graduation from the US, since two years.

The paper quoted pilots who studied at their own expense as saying that they still wait for a job opportunity despite having completed acceptance measures at the human resources department at the Saudi airline company.

One of the pilots said that the graduates face difficulties in working in the private airline companies due to the fact that they ask for flying hours experience not to be less than 5000 hours, and this will cost USD 750,000. A spending that cannot be afforded by the graduates who said that "studying aviation cost each of them 300,000 Saudi Riyals."

Another pilot said that job opportunities have been relinquished following the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA.