‘Flying’ in his mother’s footsteps

Wednesday, 4 February 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Two generations of Emirates cabin crew

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and that expression could not ring truer for mother and son, Sue Abdul and Karim Hollosi, who have both served as Emirates cabin crew, two decades apart. Two generations of Emirates cabin crew - Karim and his mother, Sue, who flew from Stockholm to attend his graduation Recruited in Dubai, after walking into the operations centre while on holiday, Sue reminisces about her time as cabin crew: “In 1994, there were about 500 cabin crew with this new airline Emirates. And now Karim’s experience is such a contrast to mine – he travels to exotic destinations, with colleagues from around the world, and lives in a Dubai that is very different from the city that I knew.” Karim joined the Emirates’ Cabin Crew team in June 2014. For Karim, the love of flying was in his genes. “Both my parents are passionate about flying so is a bit unsurprising that I find it in my destiny as well. From the stories I heard growing up, Emirates grew to be a natural choice for me,” he said. Sue says it was evident from a young age that he just might follow in her footsteps: “I was recently cleaning up and I found all of Karim’s old notebooks from when he was a kid. Each one of them had something about Emirates and little airplanes drawn on them.” Karim sits amongst his batch-mates at his Emirates cabin crew graduation ceremony In a surprise visit to Dubai to attend Karim’s cabin crew graduation ceremony, Sue says it was an emotional moment that left her feeling proud. “After 20 years, I look back on those days with affection and nostalgia, and I am happy and feel reassured to know that Karim is going to have a great future here.” Recruited from over 135 countries and speaking more than 55 languages, Emirates is proud of the service delivered by its cabin crew. In total, Emirates employs over 19,500 cabin crew members today who have all trained at the Emirates Aviation College Cabin Crew Training. Emirates has been connecting Sri Lanka to the world through its ever-expanding route network since April 1986 and currently employs more than 1,300 Sri Lankans including 146 cabin crew members.