ST Aerospace’s Pilot trng..
And in Singapore, ST Aerospace’s commercial pilot training business, ST Aerospace Academy (STAA) was recently boosted with a US$1.44 million capital injection from its parent in order to fund its expansion. The funding has been used for a new recently commissioned flight operations centre (FOC) at STAA’s Australian training school in Ballarat, Victoria, featuring a state-of-the-art centralised flight operations and dispatch centre. The new FOC has an aircraft apron that can accommodate up to 40 training aircraft, compared with 20 previously. The funding has also been used for a new Piper PA44 Seminole full flight simulator. The academy’s Ballarat facility had already added a new administrative facility and new classrooms. Meanwhile, at the academy’s Singapore base at Seletar Aerospace Park in the first quarter of 2013 a new six-bay simulator building will be ready for use, with two new Airbus A320 training devices including a flight simulator. The facility includes classrooms, briefing rooms, instructor rooms and offices.
STAA’s training fleet is also increasing, says president Peh Teng Keng. It currently operates single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawks for basic training, Piper Arrow 28Rs for advanced training, Beech King Air C90s for high-performance multi-engine training and Piper Seminole PA44s for multi-engine and instrument rating training. In 2013, it will take delivery of a further six Cessna 172s plus two more PA44s.
The expansion of facilities and equipment is all designed to allow STAA to grow by 50 graduates each year. The school had 150 students in 2012, will have 200 in 2013 and plans to grow to 500 pilots by 2015, says Peh.
This growth will come from expanding its multi-crew pilot licence (MPL) operations. STAA pioneered MPL in Singapore in late 2009 when it launched its MPL programme. In September 2011, the first six cadet pilots for Tiger Airways graduated from STAA’s MPL course following six months of ground school and 13 months of flying training in Singapore and Ballarat. Following the MPL course, the cadets went straight into jobs as first officers for Tiger on the airline’s A320s.
Peh says STAA’s current split in business is 80 per cent CPL to 30 per cent MPL, but the target for 2014 is to have a 50:50 split.
Tiger followed up its initial MPL training programme with STAA with a five-year training contract which started in the second quarter of 2012, which involves more than 100 pilots. STAA is conducting ab initio and advanced pilot training programmes for Tiger, using both MPL and CPL syllabi followed by specific training on the A320 and subsequent employment as A320 first officers.
STAA, and Tiger, are very happy with the MPL programme, says Peh, adding: “It is producing the first officers they [Tiger] are looking for.” Peh concedes the growth of MPL has been slower than STAA originally envisaged with airlines being cautious – “we can understand why, it’s quite a drastic change,” he says. But MPL is now past the developmental stage, with 600 MPL pilots produced globally and a further 2,000 undergoing training.
Peh says STAA is confident that it can start commercialising MPL in a big way now and is looking at new opportunities in China and the Middle East, for example. STAA’s current student capacity is 250 so it will look at a new base in 2014, depending on a future MPL partner. (Asian aviation)
Last edited by dflyer; 7th Jan 2013 at 22:31.