Cadet Pilot Training in Aust/ NZ - help required

[M Taylor]

I am completing an honours year of a BComm degree at Melb Uni. As I have a long standing interest in things aviation I will be doing a project on the cadet pilot training industry in Australian and NZ. The plan is to do a fairly comprehensive study of numbers, origins of students , net economic impact etc etc. Also complete an analysis on the competition to the Aust/ NZ industry who is going to N America, S Africa etc etc.

I have done some initial research online , industry magazines etc and have come up with the following list. I am not looking for any financial data as a global figure will be applied to each ab-inition cadet. Would really appreciate this help for people to add further information to what I have been able to put together below - as I am not a pilot or flying instructor -



Flight Training Adelaide:

China Airlines (Taiwan) - Numbers ? - Current Contract ?

Emirates Airlines - Numbers ? - have current contract

Cathay Pacific - Numbers - growing to 60 to 80 pa - have current contract

Dragonair - Numbers around 30 pa - have current contract

JapanExpress - Numbers ? - Current Contract ?

Vietnam Airlines - Numbers ? - Current Contract ?

Hainan Airlines ???

Air China (mainland China - still active at FTA??)



General Flying Service

Vietnam Airlines - Numbers ? - Current Contract ?

Point Cook campus of GFS - various Chinese airlines ? anyone have more information ?

China Northern in early 2000's - still active ?

Oman Air - active fairly recently ? - 15 pa



RMIT/ GFS

Read on RMIT website about training 90 cadets for Air China and Xiamen Airlines during 2006/07 - are there ongoing arrangements here ?



Australian Wings Academy (Gold Coast)

AirAsia - Numbers 60 to 80 pa - is contract ongoing ?



China Southern

Large school in WA - now owned by the airline - can graduate up to 300 pa - currently doing ?



MFTA (Moorabin Flight training academy)

Although based at Mangalore - seems to have graduated many groups from Mainland China for the last few years

Does anyone know what airlines they are destined for ? There is a picture of a China Southern aircraft on the website which

seems a little odd as China Southern have their own school in WA.



Chinese Airline Cadets

Clearly many are coming to Australia for pilot training - it is difficult to get a full picture as to what airlines they are destined for , where training

is done in Australia and what the numbers are. I have heard various rumours that many China Eastern cadets have been trained here - some by

Interair at Essendon. Are there regular schools that take the Chinese cadets - then they farm out any excess to other flying schools ?



RQAC - Airline Academy of Australia

Training cadets for China Airlines - did they take this over from FTA or do China Airlines use both providers - are any other airline cadets trained in Qld ?



Singapore Flying College

Campuses in both WA and Qld wholly owned by SIA and graduating cadets for SIA, Silkair and SIA Cargo - all training fully sponsored by parent airline.



SATA - Singapore Aerospace Technologies - Ballarat

Established a large school at Ballarat over recent years - are they doing any cadet training ?



New Zealand

Clearly some good flying schools and significant international provider of training - seems a little hard to gather concrete information on.

Ardmore Flying College has done cadet training for Xiamen airlines in the past - is this ongoing. What other schools in NZ are involved in this activity?

[otamaroa]

CTC in Hamilton NZ provide cadets for UK based airlines, BA, easyjet, Thomas Cook, Thomson, Jet2, Monarch, Citijet and also freight carriers DHL. Have provided 3 cadets for Air NZ subsidary Eagle Airways. Has a number of Vietnamese cadets currently training for (I think) Jet star pacific.

[KRUSTY 34]

As you are not a pilot M Taylor you may or may not be aware of why Cadet schemes have become more popular with operators that previously found no need for them. I'm refering to the regional and second level operators. Qantas of course have employed a mixture of cadets and general entry candidates for years. Many major Asian airlines employ cadets because the trickle from their Air forces have been unable to satisfy demand and there is no other source of local pilots.

The interest in Cadet schemes by smaller regional airlines is a fairly recent phenomenon. The reasons for this is simple, the inexorble death of General Aviation, and the continiual pressure on wages and conditions. As a consequence, there are simply not enough people in the general population willing to take up the profession. This was brought home to many regional airline managers during the previous expansion of the major Australian airlines. The villiage idiot could see it coming, but no attempt to compete for the available experienced pilots was made. While every other industry accepts that to hang onto a finite resource, wages and conditions must rise, the airline industry has been unwilling to embrace this fundamental fact. Did you know that a kitchen hand at most remote mine sites (not even a cook) earns more per year than both the Captain and First Officer combined on the flight decks of many Australian regional airliners! The First Officer on the Colgan Airlines crash in Buffalo NY last year, was on an income of $16.5K P/A!!!

My point is, the only reason we are seeing an increase in cadet programs in areas where previously there was no need, is purely because these are the only people (usually young and naive) that the regional airlines can attract in sufficient numbers to justify not having to compete for labour! :=

[M Taylor]

Thanks for all the help. I appreciate any further information.

[OZvandriver]

@M Taylor:

Australian Wings Academy still have their Air Asia contract for now but according to current students and staff this will not last for long. There are two batches of cadets there now and the airline is not going to send anymore.

I suspect that by this time next year Australian Wings Academy will no longer their sole airline contract and they will be struggling to stay afloat.