Flynas Opens Future Pilots Exams in Plan to Enrol 300 Saudi Trainees

flynas has started the selection process for the 2026 intake of its Future Pilots programme. The airline said the first-phase exam took place on Saturday 12 September 2026.

The carrier plans to enrol 300 trainees in total, starting with 150. The scheme is aimed at Saudi nationals who already hold a commercial pilot licence. They will receive theoretical and practical training to prepare them to fly as first officers at flynas.

How selection works

Exam candidates had already passed an application review that checked they met the programme’s entry requirements. Candidates will then move through further assessment stages based on their results and flynas’s selection criteria, before the airline confirms the new intake.

The programme is open to Saudi men and women. flynas presents it as part of a wider goal of full localisation of its pilot workforce, while staffing the fleet and network growth it has planned.

Where the programme has come from

Future Pilots is not new, and its earlier results explain the target. In August 2024, the Saudi Press Agency reported that flynas had graduated 170 Saudi pilots over the previous 18 months. That number included 123 co-pilots from Future Pilots and 47 co-pilots promoted to captain. By then the airline had reached 100% Saudization of its co-pilot position.

At the same time, chief executive Bander Almohanna set out a plan to employ more than 1,000 Saudi pilots over five years. That plan was linked to doubling the fleet to 160 aircraft by 2030, after an order for 160 Airbus jets took flynas’s total order book to 280 aircraft.

The airline’s latest corporate profile, published on 6 October 2026, describes a network of 156 routes to more than 80 destinations in 38 countries, with more than 2,000 weekly flights. flynas has carried 110 million passengers since it started flying in 2007.

The regulatory backdrop

Saudi rules also push airlines towards local hiring. In March 2024, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development began the second phase of Saudization for licensed aviation roles. It set a 70% target for fixed-wing pilots and 60% for flight attendants at private-sector employers with five or more staff in those roles. Workers in these jobs must hold a professional accreditation certificate from the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).

Regional picture

flynas’s approach is different from the zero-hours model used elsewhere in the Gulf. Its 2026 intake targets candidates who already hold a commercial licence. In Dubai, flydubai announced on 18 September that two partner academies will train its first ab initio cadets from scratch towards a Multi-Crew Pilot Licence. For Saudi pilots who already have a licence, Future Pilots is a shorter route into an airline flight deck.