Apex Flight Academy (安捷飛航訓練中心), the nation’s only flight training school, has flown under the radar in its first few years of existence, but is now eager to boost its profile to become a leading pilot training center in Asia.
With Apex celebrating its fourth anniversary this month, its founder and managing director, Wilson Kao (高健祐), on Monday said that the school hopes to strengthen the nation’s ability to train pilots to create job opportunities and avoid an overdependence on foreign pilots.
The strategy would not only ensure Taiwan has an adequate aviation workforce amid a global pilot shortage, but also elevate the nation’s profile in the Asian aviation sector, Kao said.
Apex’s focus is not surprising in light of Asia’s booming travel and aviation market.
A Boeing Co report last month said that the Asia-Pacific region is the part of the world that would need the greatest number of pilots, technicians and cabin crew members over the next 20 years, with an estimated 240,000 more pilots needed by 2037.
Taiwan itself would need about 300 new pilots a year as Taiwanese carriers see growth in both their passenger and cargo businesses, Kao said.
“Apex plans to expand its reach to other Asian countries, helping Taiwan become known as a hub for developing flight talent,” Kao said.
For instance, Apex was recently certified by the Cambodian Aviation Authority as a flight school qualified to train pilots for the nation.
However, Apex’s ambitions face considerable obstacles.
Among them is a preference among people interesting in obtaining a private or commercial pilot license to do their training overseas.
About 250 to 300 Taiwanese receive flight training abroad every year, compared with about 50 at Apex, which has the capacity to train about 120 pilots a year.
Also, few people even know Taiwan has its own flight training school, Kao said, which is why he is intent on boosting the academy’s profile to attract more students from Taiwan and overseas.
One way Apex intends to build its credibility is through more international partnerships.
The school is soon to be the only East Asian flight training base of France’s Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile, providing training certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency.
The strategy also involves nurturing a staff of 12 international trainers from nations such as Japan, the US and Germany.
The company, which is headquartered in Taipei and has its main training base in Taitung County, has also set up a training center in Georgetown, Texas, for those who insist on being trained overseas.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS