AAPA celebrates 10-year anniversary with pilot graduation ceremony

The Australian Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Regional Express (Rex), is commemorating its 10-year anniversary with a special ceremony coinciding with the graduation of Rex cadet pilots and a Vietnamese cadet destined for Vietnam Airlines.

The cadet pilots have completed an intensive training programme beginning in the ab-initio phase and will now graduate with an Australian Commercial Pilots Licence and Multi Engine Command Instrument Rating issued by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

Mr Chris Hine, the Chairman of AAPA, commented, “AAPA is a world class facility providing the highest quality of standards and disciplines in pilot training and thanks to the dedicated and tireless work of all our staff, we have graduated cadet pilots that now make up 79% of Rex’s First Officers and 30% of Rex’s Captains, as well as many pilots for major airlines around the world.”

Regional Express commenced the Rex Pilot Cadet Programme in December 2007 to combat a world-wide pilot shortage. After initially commencing operations in Mangalore, Victoria, Rex opened a pilot training academy in 2010 located at Wagga Wagga in NSW, where the graduation ceremony is taking place.

AAPA is approved as a Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) by the General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam and an approved supplier to Vietnam Airlines, with the first eight Vietnamese cadets graduating in May 2017.