Together with its expanding fleet, Turkish Airlines (THY) recruits 500 new pilots every year, and now Turkey's leading aviation company has revised the conditions to recruit pilots to include open education faculty graduates in its recruitment process. THY initially aims to recruit more than 4,000 pilots by 2021 from national sources, and for candidates to be trained as first officers, a new regulation is on the way.

According to the Habertürk daily, THY previously accepted applications from candidates that graduated from science and equally weighted programs in four-year universities, and as of 2015, it also opened its gates to graduates from non-math programs in four-year universities. Now, with the new regulation, THY includes open education faculty graduates in its recruitment process.

THY announced that it would accept applications from open education faculty graduates to be trained as first officers. Lacking nationally trained pilots, THY has tried to recruit foreign pilots, and it is still searching.

Seeking to employ captains and first officers through road shows organized throughout the country, THY will meet Saudi Arabian pilots via a road show in Jeddah June 1-2.

In the roadshows, THY discusses opportunities it offers to pilots and the recruitment process. THY previously organized road shows in the U.S., Brazil, Iran, Qatar, Spain, France and Russia. Turkish Airlines re-opened its gates to pilots previously eliminated due to failing some tests. While the THY Flight Academy opens its gates to non-math graduates, the retirement age has been raised from 63 to 65 with a new regulation put into effect on Dec. 28, 2015.