Aviation training schools reexamine the bottom line | Aviation International News

Training and Workforce

Aviation training schools reexamine the bottom line

Flight schools must innovate to survive, since airlines are no longer able to sponsor tuition and a pilot career has lost its appeal amid headlines announc

By Ian Goold • Senior correspondent

January 14, 2008

Flight schools must innovate to survive, since airlines are no longer able to sponsor tuition and a pilot career has lost its appeal amid headlines announcing furloughs, according to Oxford Aviation Training (OAT). The company said a UK pilot shortage within five years is a foregone conclusion, while elsewhere in Europe pilot demand “is expected to outstrip [training] capacity significantly starting in 2004.”

Since there is a lack of aspiring pilots, OAT plans to offer an airline-partnership program to “selected, self- funded and well trained” pilots, who will graduate from a professional pilot course, not one geared simply to obtaining a license. The move follows the acquisition of the former Oxford Air Training School two years ago by Signature Flight Support parent BBA Group, which has invested some £60 million ($95.4 million) to purchase new equipment, upgrade Oxford Airport and acquire Tyler International School of Aviation in Florida.

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