Open Skies flying school to meet pilot demand

By Pramod de Silva

With a huge demand for pilots looming on the horizon worldwide, Sri Lankan flight training schools are gearing up to recruit and serve more students looking for a career in the skies.

On July 22, leading aircraft manufacturer, Boeing released its pilot and technician outlook, which makes predictions for the long-term aviation market. As global economies expand, the aircraft manufacturer says the industry will need to hire 617,000 commercial airline pilots worldwide by 2035.

That comes out to about 30,850 new pilots every year. In addition, the report projected that the industry would also need 679,000 additional maintenance technicians and 814,000 cabin crew to keep up with demand.

This projection came just weeks after Boeing released its commercial market outlook which predicted a worldwide demand for 39,620 new airplanes valued at US$ 5.9 trillion over the next 20 years. Most of this growth will occur in the Asia Pacific region.

Challenge

Intent on finding out how Sri Lankan flights schools are taking on this challenge, we visited one of the leading flight training schools in the country - Open Skies at Katukurunda, with a ground (theory) school in Panadura.

"This is a major challenge for everyone in the industry. According to the Boeing report, the Asia pacific region alone will need 248,000 new pilots in the next 20 years. More students must learn to fly if we are to avert a shortage of pilots in the coming years," said Open Skies Chairman M.D.H. Fernando, leafing through the Boeing Report that an aide had brought him.

Fernando said that an increasing number of students, including many female students, are choosing aviation, especially piloting, as a future career. "Our flight schools are second to none in the world and we comply with all Civil Aviation of Authority of Sri Lanka and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules and regulations."

He said learning to fly in Sri Lanka is much cheaper than doing the entire course abroad, though students who want to become full-time airline pilots have to go New Zealand's International Aviation Academy affiliated to Air New Zealand for twin-engine certification.

Mandatory steps

At present, Open Skies has seven single-engine turboprop Cessna and Piper Cherokee training aircraft which are meticulously maintained to rigorous local and international standards. These aircraft are subject to frequent checks by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Open Skies, he said, is the only flight school in Sri Lanka that has Piper Cherokees. It is also the only flying school in Sri Lanka having a highly experienced expatriate Chief Flight Instructor complemented by a team of experienced local instructor pilots. This factor gives extra confidence to the students.

"There are a few mandatory steps that a student has to go through to become an airline or commercial pilot. They have to attend ground school classes, pass the theory exams, learn to actually fly and then do the flight tests."

The first stage is getting the Private Pilot's Licence, which a student has to get before getting the Air Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL). Once he or she passes the ATPL exams and becomes a Commercial Pilot Licence holder, the next stage is securing the Frozen APTL which is the gateway to a commercial flying career.

Students have to learn VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flying first, before moving to instrument-aided flying. It generally takes 16-18 months to complete the course and earn certification. "The students at Open Skies are given night flying opportunities at Ratmalana since that cannot be done at Katukurunda. They also have to fly cross country as part of the training. "The highlight for most student pilots is landing at the runway at the Bandaranaike International Airport, because they can see their ultimate aspiration - big commercial airliners - with their own eyes and share the same runway. In fact, most of our past students now work for SriLankan, Mihin, Emirates and other major airlines." He said Open Skies has a top-notch engineering and maintenance team that takes very good care of the planes.

"The demand for aircraft engineers and technicians is soaring in line with the demand for planes. This too is an exciting career option and through our educational consultancy service, students also have the option of pursuing a career in aviation or aerospace industries in Australia and New Zealand. Whatever path you choose, aviation is an industry that will keep on soaring," Fernando said.