Meet Kyriaki, a Greek Commercial Pilot! Kyriaki started her journey as Cabin Crew, but decided she wanted to get her CPL. She kindly explains her journey and advice for anyone wanting to do the same...
Where did the dream start for you?
I imagine that, for the majority of Pilots within the avation industry, their dream started in their childhood. In my case, it wasn’t like that; everything began at a much later on stage in my life. With just the thought of searching for Pilot jobs, I decided to make it reality!
After I graduated from the University of Crete, I started to work as a flight attendant for a local airline in Greece. I love travelling abroad and the idea of being a part of a cabin crew team and travelling around the world was something that was fascinating me! So, I decided to try my luck at the Flight Attendant open day for Emirates.
Well prepared for the recruitment process, I was one of the seven people out of 700 candidates who passed!! After being offered a pilot job, I packed up and moved to Dubai, ready to start work!
After I moved to Dubai I started to think about my next goal. I am a person that I always tries to achieve new things in my life.
One of the very first days that we were heading to the Aviation college of Emirates, the idea of becoming a Pilot was born unexpectedly, and thus, the dream.
I started to collect information about different flight schools around the world, trying to figure out how I could combine my job as a flight attendant and attend flight school simultaneously. It was not an easy path, but I was determined to find a way.
I decided to resign from being a flight attendant at Emirates and I started to work as a VIP flight attendant for a private jet, knowing that I could have more free time for my Pilot studying.
What was your biggest challenge?
The biggest difficulty for me was the distance whilst completing my training. Since I was working full time, I wasn’t able to attend the classes like the rest of the student pilots, do I had to study everything by myself.
I remember spending countless hours with my head in textbooks, sacrificing many moments and staying indoors in order to pass the 14 subjects. For me, the most difficult part of my pilot training was the theory exams... the flights were my happy moments!
Overall, I would say that it was a very challenging journey but I never thought to give up. My advice to any aspiring pilot would be to go all in with all of your heart, patience and strength. It is a very demanding career but definitely worth it.
