![]() Spanish training college FlyBy has bucked the gloom by opening a second site in the country A student starting an ab initio course this quarter is unlikely to be looking for employment before mid-2023, when aviation could be in a very different shape, maintains Alex Alvarez, chief executive of Spanish flying college FlyBy. Who is correct, of course, will depend on your view of when and how fast the industry will recover, and how many out-of-work pilots will seek to return to their old jobs. Of the breezier predictions on the pilot jobs market from some of his rivals, he notes: “I hope they are right, but all the optimistic views we had in the past 12 months disappeared quite quickly.” ![]() LAT is now looking at relaunching its ab initio programme in 2022, but “the set-up will be smaller, with capacity reduced to the demand of this decade”, says Scheib. In the end, 160 trainees terminated their arrangement, but almost 700 decided to continue their training. “They didn’t have a guarantee, but there was a reasonable expectation they would get a job,” says Scheib. Unlike some schools, virtually all the students enrolled on LAT’s ab initio courses were on a programme sponsored by a Lufthansa Group carrier. We gave everyone the chance to step out of the contract without any costs, or we said we could send them to different flight schools that we partner with.” “We planned to restart in April, but ended up stopping until the end of 2020. “No-one expected what happened in March, when we suddenly stopped training,” says Stefan-Kenan Scheib, head of pilot schools at LAT. It says there was little or no prospect of them getting a posting with a Lufthansa Group airline in the foreseeable future. Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) last year scrapped its ab initio programme, offering 850 students a full refund or the option to transfer elsewhere as part of a new “campus model”. The mood at Europe’s largest airline-run training provider could hardly be more different. Once the deal is concluded, the combined entity will have capacity for more than 400 students. It is acquiring one of the world’s biggest flight schools, in Vero Beach, Florida, and taking on its 135 current trainees and 64 aircraft. The UK’s Skyborne Aviation has such faith in the ab initio market that it is trebling in size this year. They do not want the supply tap turned again on before demand has fully returned.īut for some training organisations, their deeds match their words. Unions representing airline pilots, on the other hand, need to ensure their members get first refusal on jobs when recruitment starts again, and are not priced out of the market by newly qualified aviators desperate to get onto the career ladder. So, for training businesses, talking up the recovery makes a lot of sense. However, would-be pilots will only risk those eye-watering fees if there is a realistic prospect of a steady job and attractive salary at the end. Schools that have invested in buildings, staff, aircraft, and training devices need to fill their courses to survive. “This is not a positive picture for anyone whose heart is set on entering this profession.”Ĭynics might suspect vested interests at play. “In this situation it would be irresponsible if we did anything other than warn people to consider delaying their flight training at this time,” said the association last November. However, UK pilots’ union BALPA is urging aspiring pilots to think again about a cockpit career until the industry recovers. Several smaller schools echo these views. CAE, the world’s largest ab initio training provider, has suggested that – with demand for air travel likely to overtake 2019 levels in the next few years, and the pandemic accelerating the retirement of older pilots – now is actually the perfect time to start a course. It is a question that splits optimists and fatalists. Some training schools, such as FTA, have continued to take on ab initio students Decade of Airline Excellence Awards 2020.Airline Business special: CEOs to watch in 2021.FlightGlobal Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2021.Airline Business Covid-19 recovery tracker: November 2021 update.EDGE: A new global force in aerospace and defence.Shell Aviation: What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation?. ![]() What does the future of aviation look like in 2022?.Guide to Business Aviation Training and Safety 2022.What will it take to Decarbonise Aviation?.A new episode of the Airline Business podcast is available - listen now.
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