US regional airline Continental Express has announced training deals to help meet its demand for pilots. The carrier hired over 680 pilots last year and plans to take on more than 800 this year, most for its growing regional jet fleet.
Continental Express has jointly developed an ab initio training programme with Ohio's Kent State University to provide a pool of qualified pilot applicants. Aeronautics students who meet academic and flight criteria will be accepted into the programme, which will provide classroom and flight training to prepare them for employment with the airline. Continental Express will provide the training materials and flight instructors for Embraer ERJ-145 systems. The course begins in July.
In a second alliance, Deland, Florida-based Regional Airline Academy will provide Continental Express with pilot applicants through an accelerated training programme which can take an individual from zero experience to first officer level in 10 months.
Students will pay about $55,000 for the 450-500h "direct track" programme, which has two phases. The first leads to a commercial multi-engine rating. The second involves 70h of airline-style line-oriented flight training in a Raytheon Beech King Air C90, 30h in a flight training device, and training on typical regional airliner systems.
Source: Flight International
