Flight School Numbers Taking Off

By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
llewellyn.stephen@dailygleaner.com
Published Monday March 3rd, 2008
Appeared on page A3

The Fredericton flight school is flying high with more students and more planes arriving this spring.

"We have 68 students there now from three different airlines," said Mike Tilley, president of Saint John-based CANlink Aviation Inc..

"We expect to have 120 by April."

CANlink is operating the Fredericton campus of the Moncton Flight College.

The Moncton Flight College has a $60-million contract to train pilots for Chinese airlines. It's estimated that China needs 1,200 new pilots every year.

"The third phase of our residence will arrive in March," said Tilley.

"We expect to add another phase this summer, which will get us to 186 beds."

He said by the fall the flight school will be looking for additional space at the Fredericton International Airport.

"We are in the process of determining where we are going to locate ourselves," he said. "We are going to outgrow our hanger space."

The flight school has nine single-engine aircraft. Tilley said the students at the flight school will start training on multi-engine aircraft in the spring.

"Our first twin (aircraft) is arriving next week," he said. "We are going to have a twin turbo this April.

"We will have 12 aircraft by April."

With the new planes comes the need for more instructors and aircraft-maintenance engineers, said Tilley.

"We had projected a fairly aggressive growth plan," he said. "I would say we are on plan or slightly ahead of plan."

Tilley said it's starting to become a challenge to find enough instructors and maintenance engineers. The Moncton Flight College has a flight instructor program and the flight school here is hiring them, he said.

But to get enough maintenance engineers, the company is hiring outside the province, said Tilley.

"The tricky (part) is on the maintenance side," he said. "So far we are OK."

Tilley said the biggest problem is that the airlines in China want to send more students to the flight school.

"We are having a hard time slowing our customers down," he said.

All the student pilots in Fredericton are from China.

"It does not mean we are not going to do some other international work in the future," said Tilley.

The Fredericton flight school has a five-year, $1-million loan guarantee from the provincial government and Tilley said the company hasn't used all that financial support.

David Innes, president and CEO of the Greater Fredericton Airport Authority, said the airport won't have any problem finding room for the flight school to expand.

"We have 1,000 acres of undeveloped space around the airport," he said Wednesday.

Innes said the airport hopes to start work on its new aerospace defence park this year.

He said he's pleased by the success of the flight school and the airport will do all it can to help them.

"Their growth has been spectacular," said Innes.

"There are lots of planes on the runways and the taxiways every day."