Pan Am International Flight Academy (PAIFA) has entered the ab initio pilot training market by buying Westwind Aviation Academy.
Following its acquisition of Phoenix, Arizona-based Westwind, PAIFA has launched a career pilot training programme, under which it will work with airlines to select and train students all the way from zero flight time to a type-specific rating.
"The purchase of Westwind is an indication that we intend to move rapidly into the airline career training business," says PAIFA president Pedro Sors. Miami-based PAIFA has expanded rapidly since being acquired last year by investment firm JW Childs. It operates several business and commercial aviation training centres.
Pat McSweeney, vice-president pilot development, says demand for pilots is expected to increase dramatically because of retirements, airline growth and other factors.
Using the resources of PAIFA's simulator centres, including the business aircraft devices operated by subsidiary SimCom, the company plans to offer ab initio training that will take a student "from zero time to the right seat of a [Boeing] 737" in less time than it now takes. "A student should be able to do the entire package within a year," believes McSweeney.
Early customers for the career pilot programme are expected to come from among the airlines, including regionals, that use PAIFA's training centres.
Sors says the Westwind acquisition is in line with PAIFA's objective of consolidating a fragmented training industry "which does not allow for the flow of an individual through a career".
In addition to establishing training centres in Cincinatti, Dulles, Memphis and soon Minneapolis, PAIFA has signed a long-term contract to sell excess time on simulators at Northwest Airlines' training centre in Minneapolis. The additional 60,000h will almost double the company's simulation training capacity, to 150,000h.
Source: Flight International
