Qantas says it is on track to launch its Queensland-based group pilot academy by mid-year despite the loss of the original training partner and the need to house students in temporary accommodation.
The airline originally announced it was working with US training provider L3 Commercial Aviation but the two have parted ways after failing to come to an agreement.
Qantas said it expects to announce a new provider soon and the change would not affect its plans to start training its first student intake mid-year.
The airline announced with much fanfare in September 2018 that it had chosen Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport and as the first site for training operations.
The academy will have the capacity to train up to 250 pilots a year from Australia and overseas and is part of a strategy to ensure that Qantas has a long-term talent pipeline for its airlines in an environment of rising demand for pilots.
Toowoomba is the first of two locations chosen from a shortlist of nine regional cities, with Alice Springs, Bendigo, Busselton, Dubbo, Launceston, Mackay and Wagga Wagga still under consideration for the second academy site.
The airline has continued to work with the owners of Wellcamp, the Wagner family, to develop facilities and it said it expected the first cohort of trainees to start while the “wider development” continued.
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Architects were working on final designs for facilities such as hangars, classrooms and student accommodation.
“It’s been a busy couple of months for the pilot academy team with detailed design work underway with the Wagners and the local community to bring together plans for our new pilot academy,’’ Qantas Group Pilot Academy executive manager Wes Nobelius said.
“Naturally, it takes time to have facilities designed, approved and built so to make sure we can start training as soon as possible, we’re looking at temporary accommodation for the first intake of students in the mid-2019.”
Meanwhile, rival Virgin Australia has hit out at coverage of its proposed training facility in the NSW regional center of Tamworth.
The airline, which has key Chinese shareholders who together own almost 40 percent of the company, has denied it is “secretly” dealing with Chinese interests to set up the facility.
Tamworth had originally been one of the contenders for the Qantas academy but announced in October it would join with Virgin to establish “an aviation centre of excellence”.
Virgin has been talking with one its shareholders, HNA Group, about the project but said this because HNA subsidiary Australian International Aviation College already operates a pilot school in Port Macquarie and had the necessary skills and resources.
Manufacturer Boeing has estimated the fast-growing Chinese market will need 128,500 pilots over the next 20 years, including those employed in the helicopter and business aviation sectors.
