Hamilton flight school to train BA pilots
MICHELLE COOKE
Hamilton flight school to train BA pilots | Stuff.co.nz
Last updated 17:52 11/08/2011
A Hamilton flight school has been selected by British Airways to train cadet pilots - but there's a catch.
Only people with the right to work in the European Union would be eligible to apply - and only five or six percent of them would get through the tough selection criteria.
The CTC Aviation Training NZ Ltd school is the largest pilot training establishment in the country.
Its chief executive Ian Calvert said the company had supplied cadet pilots to the airline in the past but not on a regular basis.
He was ecstatic that the school had been chosen to train 30 cadets for the airline each year.
"It's really what we've been trying to get across in New Zealand for some time - that cadet pilots are the way of the future."
He said most pilots were trained to pilot a small aircraft and had to work their way up the ranks before being selected to fly larger planes.
"A general aviation pilot while they might eventually have the skills they don't have the immediate aptitude or ability to pilot a fast moving passenger jet," he said.
Calvert said the selection process for cadets was strict.
"Not just everyone with money will get though the course," he said.
"They're geared towards airline operations from day one."
Training took 17 to 18 months, Calvert said.
The school had 140 trainees at the moment and Calvert expected that number to increase to around 200 by March.
He expected around 12 cadets a month to arrive from the UK.
Those cadets would do their general skills training in the UK before arriving in New Zealand.
New Zealanders who were eligible to work in the European Union could also apply.
The school also trained cadet pilots for British Airways.
A training school in Spain and another school in the UK would also train cadet pilots for British Airways.
- Stuff