SINGAPORE: A commercial pilot training academy has been set up by Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aerospace) and the Aviation Training Academy Singapore (ATAS) to meet the rising demand for pilots in Asia.
The Singapore-based joint venture company, known as ST Aviation Training Academy (STATA), will start flight training in Australia by next month, with synthetic centric flight training scheduled to start in Singapore by early 2009 at its Seletar Airport facility.
The academy will provide traditional pilot training and once it receives endorsements from relevant airworthiness authorities, it will include a Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL) programme with advanced teaching and simulation technologies in a multi-crew cooperation environment. This will enable pilots to be trained in half the time required as compared to traditional training.
This year alone, airlines in the Asia Pacific require over 40,000 pilots, but there may only be 30,000 trained pilots. According to Boeing, airlines around the world will also need 17,000 new pilots every year until 2024 to keep up with new aircraft deliveries.
Noting the strong demand for pilots in Asia due to the upturn in the aviation industry and record number of aircraft deliveries over the next few years, Eddie Ong, President of STATA said the company wanted to seize an early mover advantage using the MPL programme.
"MPL training is a state-of-the-art approach, tailored to meet today's airlinesÂ’ requirements. It challenges the mindset shift from conventional pilot training methodologies to that available under MPL, and we are confident this evolutionary MPL programme will bring tremendous value for the airline industry," he said.
ST Aerospace will operate and manage STATA as a part of its global network, drawing on its aircraft engineering and military pilot training expertise, as well as ATASÂ’ airline management and commercial pilot training experience.
The aerospace arm of ST Engineering owns a 70 per cent stake in the joint-venture with ATAS, and the investment is not expected to create any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets per share and earnings per share of ST Engineering for the current financial year. – CNA/yb
Source