Emirates open day in Mumbai 2026: the queue, the cuts, the questions and how many actually got through
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#1 I said I would write up the Mumbai open day for the Indian applicants who message me, so here it is, as it happened, with numbers. The Gulf carriers hold events in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi regularly and the Mumbai ones are the biggest.
The queue
Hotel in Andheri, 8am start on the invite. I arrived at 6:15 and was roughly 60th. By 8am the queue went around the building and I counted around 380 people. Security let groups in for the document check. The document check took until nearly 11: passport, the printed CV with the photo, the education certificates. People were sent away at the desk for photos that did not meet the spec and for passports under six months. Around 30 went home at the desk.
The presentation and the first cut
Everyone in a ballroom for the company presentation. Then the first cut, read out by number, based on the desk check and the CV. About 200 of the 350 went home there. That is the cut that shocks people. It is not about you personally, it is about the CV and the photo and the look, and it is fast.
Reach and English
The reach test at 212 on tiptoes, done against a marked wall in a corridor, quietly. Then the English test, written, about 40 minutes, grammar and comprehension. Ten or so left after the English.
Group task
Tables of eight, a scenario about a delayed flight and what to offer passengers with a limited budget. Twenty minutes to discuss, one person presents. The recruiters walked between tables and wrote constantly. Second cut after the group task: roughly 60 went home, about 70 of us left.
Final interviews
Slots given out for the same afternoon and the next morning. Mine was 5:40pm. About 25 minutes, one recruiter, competency questions: a difficult guest, a mistake I made, a time I worked with someone I did not like, and why Emirates and not Qatar. She asked specifically about how I would handle being far from family, and I think that question decides more than people admit.
Numbers
380 in the queue, about 350 registered, 70 to final interviews. That is one in five to the final. Of those, from the group chat, around 25 have had the call so far and it has been seven weeks. So maybe one in fifteen from the door to the call, if the rest of us hear.
What I would tell the next Mumbai applicant
Arrive before 6:30. Have the photo checked by someone who has passed. Eat before, the day runs until evening. And prepare the family question properly, because in Mumbai they ask it to everyone and they can tell who has thought about it.
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#2 Qatar from Mumbai, three years, and the Qatar Mumbai days have the same shape and roughly the same ratio. One in five to the final is about right for both. The family question is the one that separated my batch: the recruiters have seen too many Indian crew leave in month four because of parents.
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#3 Bangalore days are smaller, maybe 200, and the first cut is gentler because fewer people turn up with the wrong photo. Same ratio at the end though. Good numbers, thank you for counting.
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#4 IndiGo Bangalore, two years, applying to the Gulf next quarter, and this is the first Mumbai write up with actual numbers. The 200 out of 350 at the first cut is the thing to prepare for mentally.
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#5 @priyaflies that matches what I felt in the room. The girls at my table who gave a vague answer to the family question did not get the afternoon slot.