Flight school Skyborne is to open a second UK site, at Bournemouth airport, to meet what it calls growing demand from airlines for dedicated ab initio training.
The 1,300sq m (14,000sq ft) facility was formerly operated by training company CTC before that business was acquired by L3Harris in 2015. It will focus on ATPL (air transport pilot licence) ground school and multi-instrument engine rating training and will complement Skyborne’s existing base at Gloucestershire airport. Skyborne also operates one of the industry’s largest academies in Vero Beach, Florida, which it bought from FlightSafety International in 2021.
Bournemouth airport, which is on the UK’s south coast, is home to low-cost carriers including Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI, and Skyborne chief executive Lee Woodward says trainees will benefit from being in “a commercial airline environment” as well as gaining experience of flying in European airspace over the English Channel. Gloucestershire airport is restricted to general aviation flying.
Skyborne runs cadet programmes for British Airways, Delta Air Lines, DHL, IndiGo, and SkyWest, and is looking to add others.
Woodward says Skyborne’s strategy of focusing on airline-backed courses “sets us apart” from other European ab initio training providers, which concentrate more on the retail, self-funded trainee market.
