When Everyone's Singing from the Same Hymn Sheet: easyJet Opens Its Training Playbook at APATS

There's a moment in every airline's evolution when leadership realises that having brilliant individual instructors isn't enough. You need those instructors working to the same standard, with the same vision, delivering consistent results across the entire operation. For easyJet, that realisation has shaped a comprehensive approach to instructor standardisation that other carriers are keen to understand.

On Tuesday 26th August, the airline's senior training team will share exactly how they've achieved this at APATS 2025. The 90-minute seminar, running from 11:15 to 12:45 in the Pilot Conference Stream, brings together four key figures from easyJet's training operation: Daniele Grassini, Director of Training & Standards, alongside Training Managers Antonios Grammaticas and Cameron Ruckley, and Captain Joshua Dance, who serves as a Type Rating Instructor.

"Having a clear vision has been crucial in providing direction for easyJet training and standards," explains APATS 2025 Conference Chair Jacques Drappier. But vision without execution is just wishful thinking. The seminar will demonstrate how the airline has translated strategic thinking into practical frameworks that instructors can actually use.

The session tackles three critical areas that most airlines struggle with. First, the team will explore how they've developed and implemented instructor competencies for recruitment, training, and ongoing assessment.

The second focus area addresses instructor concordance, perhaps the thorniest challenge in aviation training. How do you ensure that different instructors are making similar judgements about pilot performance? easyJet's approach includes specific exercises designed to align instructor thinking, alongside methods for analysing where discrepancies occur and why.

Finally, the team will dig into their data analysis insights. With competency-based training generating vast amounts of performance data, the challenge is making sense of it in ways that actually improve training outcomes.

Each section includes dedicated time for questions and discussion, reflecting APATS's commitment to adding interactive elements alongside its traditional conference format. The seminar requires no additional registration beyond standard conference attendance.

For an industry where training consistency can literally be a matter of life and death, easyJet's willingness to share their methods represents tangible proof that systematic approaches to instructor standardisation are practical solutions that work in real airline operations.