Eyeing the rising global demand for commercial pilots, the nation is to see its first flight training school open next week.
APEX Flight Academy Co Ltd (安捷飛航訓練中心), which has already set up its aircraft parking ground and maintenance hangar near Taitung airport, is set to open for business on Wednesday, following preparations that have taken more than a year.
The flight school, which has NT$160 million (US$5.31 million) in registered capital, is set up to train people who are interested in getting a private pilot’s license (PPL) or a commercial pilot’s license (CPL).
Photo: Lin Chia-chi, Taipei Times
“Taiwan has never owned a domestic flight training school, with interested learners only capable of joining courses abroad,” company general manager J.J. Tsang (臧運國) told a media briefing ahead of the flight school’s official launch ceremony at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on Wednesday.
However, global aviation systems are set to require more than 500,000 new commercial airline pilots over the next 20 years, with 40 percent of them needed by Asian carriers, Tsang said, citing figures from Boeing Co.
The high demand has led APEX management to maintain a bullish outlook for the new business.
The flight school has set the price of the PPL course and CPL course at about NT$600,000 and NT$2.3 million respectively, with the academy expecting to recruit 150 to 200 students for the PPL course and 20 for the CPL course in its first year of operation, Tsang said.
Tsang said entering the aviation industry would be a challenge, with the company setting a modest goal of generating profits in five to eight years at the earliest.
APEX sales and marketing department director Allen Wang (王志仁) said about 100 people had so far contacted the company to express an interest in joining the courses.
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