Riku Olenius

“My aviation career started in 2012 when I decided to move to Australia, I completed my initial flight training in Adelaide, South Australia where I also completed my Bachelor of Aviation at the University of South Australia. After the completion of my studies, I decided to move back to Finland in 2015 and was looking for a qualified ATO to conduct my license conversion. Aeropole immediately convinced me that they were the right flight school for me as I believe my license conversion was the first conversion course completed by Aeropole, I was extremely impressed by how they planned and executed the program. Further, the instructors and management are professionals to the highest level and the company has a modern fleet for the students to operate. I would highly recommend Aeropole to anyone who wants to take on the challenge of becoming a professional pilot.

After the completion of my license conversion with Aeropole, I received my first flying job with Ryanair as a First Officer on the B737-800. I was initially based in the UK where I worked for some time until later being re-assigned to Berlin, Germany. After a couple of years with Ryanair, I had the chance to return to Finland and fly for Norwegian on the same B737-800 type. I also had the luxury of flying the new B738-MAX. By this time, I had already experienced over 150 airports and had around 3000 hours on the 737. I had the pleasure to work for Norwegian for three years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic which caused major issues for the aviation industry and unfortunately, I was placed on unpaid leave initially followed by contract termination due to company bankruptcy.

Being a professional pilot is more than just a job, it is a lifestyle. Whilst being redundant from flying and being totally unsure as to when the industry would recover, I continued to study and kept myself recurrent to make sure when the industry did recover, I would get back to flying and continue to operate to the highest standards possible.

With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, I was offered a Senior First Officer position with Flydubai in February 2022 flying the B737-800/MAX based in Dubai, with my new position I will have the chance to explore even more of the world including areas such as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.”