• Ryanair is entrusting French flight school Astonfly with the selection and training of its future pilots
• Astonfly will train 500 pilots for Ryanair over four years

Ryanair has chosen Astonfly as its exclusive partner in France for the selection and training of its future pilots through the "Ryanair Mentored Programme".

After a year of discussions and technical audits, the partnership contract was signed by Charles Clair, President of Clair Group, airline pilot and founder of Astonfly, Patrick Milward, CEO of Astonfly and Ryanair's operational and recruitment management.

"The Ryanair group currently has a fleet of 500 aircraft and is targeting 225 million passengers for 2026. This will create thousands of positions for future pilots," said Mark Duffy, Ryanair's Deputy Director HR – Head of Talent Acquisition.

Since it was founded, Astonfly has trained more than 1,000 airline pilots who are today working for more than 50 airlines worldwide. With a fleet of over 40 aircraft, Astonfly is the leading airline pilot training school in France. Its campus is based near Paris at the Toussus-le-Noble airport (Yvelines).

With the Ryanair Mentored Programme, 98% of these students will become Boeing 737 co-pilots at the end of their two years of Astonfly training.