Trainee pilots allowed back in the country, a 'boost' to aviation industry

Wednesday, 27 October 2021

The Ministry of Education has confirmed 400 trainee pilots will be allowed into the country in 2022 to learn at flight schools across New Zealand.

A Government announcement allowing 400 international trainee pilots into the country is a huge “boost” to an industry battered by Covid-19, an aviation leader says.

It comes as airlines overseas look to recruit new pilots, and air travel starts to resume internationally.

The Ministry of Education has confirmed 1000 international students will be granted border exemptions to enter the country in 2022, 400 of whom are pilot trainees.

The rest of the cohort will be made up of 600 tertiary students – 300 studying at university degree level or higher, and 300 studying at polytechnic or diploma level.

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Aviation NZ chief executive John Nicholson said the announcement eased anxiety.

“It gives certainty and predictability, the industry didn’t know what the future would bring,” he said.

Flight school students coming from overseas pay $80,000 a year in tuition fees, and the flight training industry had been hit hard by Covid-19 – with significant job losses.

The pilot training industry in New Zealand had been “marking time” since the borders closed, Nicholson said, losing staff consistently. “They had no other option.”

The L3 Airline Academy at Hamilton Airport shut its doors in 2020 due to the pandemic. There were 170 jobs lost.

Aviation schools across the country had lost more than 50 per cent of training staff since the pandemic hit, Nicholson said.

Aviation NZ chief executive John Nicholson said New Zealand’s pilot training industry suffered from ongoing job losses since the borders shut.

And in 2020 the L3 Harris New Zealand Airline Academy, based at Hamilton Airport, shut its doors due to the pandemic – 170 staff lost their jobs.

Students provided significant investment to New Zealand, paying $80,000 each for tuition, Nicholson said.

The 400 places could bring about $32 million to the training schools, and $140 million in economic activity, mostly in regional New Zealand, he said.

Students came from all over the world to train in New Zealand for 18 months, Nicholson said, particularly from India, Vietnam and China.

Post Covid-19, a number of overseas airlines were looking to employ domestic pilots from their own countries, but who received high-quality training in New Zealand, he said. Additionally, a lot of senior pilots left the industry when Covid-19 hit and airlines were now looking to bring in new recruits.

“That’s happening in the United States, that’s happening in Europe, that’s happening in China and throughout Asia. We have a very New Zealand view of the world. The world has moved on from Covid, and airlines are growing fleets again.”

Universities NZ welcomed the announcement of border exceptions for more tertiary students but was watching for changes in MIQ to make it easier for them to come into the country.

The students will likely be allocated in 11 or 12 aviation schools across the country between Auckland and Dunedin.

According to the Ministry of Education, education providers will be able to nominate eligible students from December 2021 – though they won’t be able to apply for MIQ spots until after January 2022.

It was likely students would start arriving in the country from March 2022.

Nicholson was concerned trainees wouldn’t be able to secure the hotly-contested MIQ rooms, and he wanted spaces set aside for those trainees.

The Government allowed 1000 international tertiary students back into the country in January 2021, but by June 2021, just 135 had arrived.

As of October, 609 students had arrived from the January allocation, though 950 of the 1000 spots had been filled, Ministry of Education policy director Belinda Himionasaid.

Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said there had been “real difficulties” of students getting flights or MIQ spaces which matched up.

Whelan welcomed the announcement of a further 600 tertiary education students, and said the sector was “working through details” of how they would be arriving.

Eventually larger groups of students might be able to return to New Zealand – either through double-vaccinated students self-isolating, or going through MIQ for a shorter period.

“We are still not quite sure whether those changes will happen before, at the same time, or after this student cohort. We absolutely hope future border settings will make it a lot easier for everyone to get into the country, and we support of the work underway.”

Pre-pandemic, about 34,000 international students had been enrolled in tertiary education in New Zealand.