APATS 2026 Video Preview: Building the Next Generation of Airline Captains Through Integrated CBTA

In this APATS 2026 video preview, Captain Adrian Young, Head of Safety at QantasLink and moderator of the ATO Conference, speaks with Chris Ranganathan, Founder of Aviation Performance Advisory, about one of the industry's most pressing challenges: how to prepare pilots for command in an era of unprecedented growth.

Their discussion previews Ranganathan's APATS session, "From Training Provider to Pilot Supply System: Integrating CBTA from Ab Initio to Airline Operations," which argues that aviation training must evolve to keep pace with a rapidly changing industry. With airlines across the Asia-Pacific region promoting first officers to captain in as little as four years, compared with around a decade in the past, the traditional assumption that experience will naturally accumulate through line operations no longer holds.

The conversation explores why today's fragmented, phase-based training model can leave critical competency gaps as pilots move between flight schools, training providers, type rating organisations and airlines. Ranganathan explains how a fully integrated competency-based training and assessment (CBTA) approach—starting in ab initio training and continuing seamlessly through to airline operations—can create a continuous development pathway built around airline competencies rather than disconnected training milestones.

The interview provides a preview of a thought-provoking APATS session that will examine how airlines and training organisations can work together to build a more connected pilot supply system, one that prepares pilots for earlier command while maintaining the highest standards of safety.