$20 million is a lot to throw at a project, so they do look pretty serious but...
If all airlines are struggling to find pilots now, like as in - today, and it’s going to be years before this academy produces its first (inexperienced) pilot, I can’t see this academy being the fix that they need.
If they really have (up to) 5000 applicants, imagine how many interviews/ psych testing/ reviews etc they will have to do, both on acceptance into the academy and after graduating...forget months worth of work for HR - this will take years. Especially considering it’s taking some airlines over 18 months to process pilot applicants now, like as in - today, with all systems currently up and running.
Maybe is this all driven by HR, they’re successfully convincing everyone that this is the fix and they’ve just secured themselves years worth of work.
Flight schools are closing, there’s no instructors around anymore, so I don’t know how they’re going to get this up and running anytime soon. I agree, 2021 optimistically and again, that’ll be the first inexperienced pilot.
Also how much is this going to cost the poor student? We’re talking 6 figures but if there’s a good chance you’ll go to Qantas, would they charge a premium? $120,000? $140,000? I don’t know. I just hope that if someone forks out that sort of cash, that HR don’t just drop the program and pathway at their instant discretion as they’ve historically done.