A wing and a prayer
International students facing visa delays and lack of work rights are being put off pilot training in New Zealand, and flying schools say it’s costing them millions. Amanda Cropp reports.
After Tonga’s volcanic eruption and tsunami devastated communication links, Kafaloto Lavakeiaho struggled to find a working phone to apply for a place at the Ardmore Flying School.
Getting a medical check that met New Zealand immigration standards meant a two-month wait for an X-ray at a private clinic, but she persevered, and is now on her way to realising a dream of becoming an air force pilot.
Lavakeiaho is among international students here to gain a commercial pilot’s licence (CPL), bringing in much-needed business for an aviation training industry which pre-pandemic earned more than $60 million a year.
The country’s largest internationally respected flight training centre, L3, shut down in 2021 after an abortive effort to run onsite quarantine facilities for incoming students, and other schools are struggling to regain ground lost during the long border closure.
Chief executive of industry body Aviation New Zealand John Nicholson paints a grim picture of the Covid-19 impact on flight schools, which had 651 international students in mid2020.
‘‘I would be surprised we got to 100 students during 2022.’’
A Cabinet exemption to allow in 400 pilot trainees came too late, and Nicholson says by the time it was confirmed, more than half of those intending to come here were lost to overseas flight trainers.
Now the borders are open, the future of flying schools is looking brighter as a strong rebound in global travel feeds a growing demand for pilots.
Air India last week placed an order for almost 500 new aircraft with manufacturer Boeing which estimates the Asia Pacific Region alone will require 261,000 new pilots over the next 20 years.
New Zealand’s relatively empty skies, access to mountain flying and international airports, and at times challenging weather conditions, have in the past made it an attractive location for large airlines to train their pilots via contracts with flight schools.
But there is stiff competition from Australia, the US and Canada where visa processing is faster and costs are lower.
Chief executive of the International Aviation Academy of New Zealand (IAANZ) Jeremy Ford reckons he lost $2m worth of business in January because of delays in getting students here.
‘‘A student visa used to take three weeks maximum preCovid, now it takes a minimum of seven to eight weeks.’’
For a long time the ratio was 60% international to 40% domestic students, but that has been reversed.
Why they come
Indonesian Dubhe Pramono decided she wanted to fly after completing a Bachelor of Aviation Management at Massey University, and looked at schools in India, the US, the Philippines, and the UK before settling on IAANZ in Christchurch.
New Zealand’s aviation safety record was a big drawcard, plus she and her parents felt the culture here was more accepting of Muslims, and her long-term goal is to work for Singapore Airlines.
Lavakeiaho gave up a scholarship studying medicine in China to become a pilot, and she chose to train at Ardmore on the advice of her uncle, who flies for Tongan carrier Lulutai Airlines.
She receives a $20,000 contribution from the Tongan Government towards her $160,000 in training costs and makes up the balance with parttime work and support from her family.
Lavakeiaho has a job offer in Tonga on graduation, and eventually hopes to join the air force in New Zealand or the US, where she has family.
Indian student Hamdan Parayil was accepted at IAANZ in September 2020, and patiently sat out the border closure and a four-month wait for a visa.
The qualified mechanical engineer from Kerala in India was far from idle, doing pilot theory courses online, and spending a year employed on aircraft maintenance in the United Arab Emirates.
Parayil considered other countries, but friends who trained at IAANZ recommended it, and his only regret is that a change to post-study visa rules made last year will prevent him from staying here to work as an instructor after graduation.
Paying the bills
Pilot training is a big investment, and before they are accepted, overseas students must prove they have 100% of the funds needed to cover course costs and living expenses, often via airline cadetships or personal loans.
Those doing a degree or diploma level aviation qualifications like Parayil can work part-time, and he is grateful for income from a restaurant job.
Nicholson says that preCovid, about 40% of the students solely here to get CPL training were allowed to work up to 20 hours a week, but that work right was removed, and Immigration NZ told him it should never have been permitted in the first place.
Nicholson argues that, aside from the financial leg up, working alongside Kiwis in hospitality or horticulture is an opportunity for students to improve their English, and they help fill gaps in the labour force.
For Ardmore Flying School
general manager Irene King, losing that right to work was a big blow because she says other countries allow it.
‘‘Removal of work rights means the families now have to find around another $500 a week, so their children can survive here.
‘‘I think [the policy] is turning away about 50% of our potential applicants.’’
Economic benefits
Most flying schools are based in the regions, and Aviation New Zealand estimates international students generated $226m in economic activity in 2020.
The closure of L3 radically reduced the number of UK trainees, and India is currently our largest market, followed by Vietnam.
The New Zealand Airline Academy at Oamaru Airport opened five years ago and has invested more than $6m in aircraft and simulators.
It runs a cadet pilot programme for Air Asia India, and takes only international students, who get fully catered accommodation in a converted rest home.
Director and head of training Celroy Mascarenhas says it has 71 trainees, but could take up to 120.
India is also a key market for the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy, created after the Whanganui District Council’s commercial arm bought a Manawatu flying school, and relocated it to a $2.1m purpose-built training facility at Whanganui airport in 2018.
Back then the goal was to double student numbers to 200 a year (it now hopes to get to 130 by year-end).
During the pandemic the academy received $300,000 in financial support from the council and expansion plans to be funded by a $28m loan were dropped.
Board chairperson David Rae was unable to provide data on the school’s economic contribution to the region, but he says it is considerable.
‘‘These are high-value students. Each cadet brings well over $100,000 in direct spending such as course costs, food and accommodation.’’
China is another potential market following relaxation of its closed border policy during Covid-19, and King says Ardmore is considering major investment there.
‘‘We’re looking at two or three key relationships with airlines that have worked with us in the past, it’s about repairing and restoring relationships and offering them training down here in groups.’’
Instructor drought
Experienced flying instructors have historically been prime targets for pilot-hungry airlines like Air New Zealand which expects to hire more than 100 new turboprop pilots this year.
Last year Massey University’s flying school lost 15 instructors to airline jobs, close to half its total trainers, and in the past eight months 70% of Air Hawkes’ Bay’s flight school instructors have gone to the national carrier.
Ford says Air New Zealand has made an effort to ease the strain by allowing instructors to give two or three months’ notice, but another school says things can change quickly and an instructor due to leave in May had his start date brought forward to March.
No one wants to see a repeat of the instructor drought of 2018 which was implicated in safety issues, with 26 fixed wing flight training accidents and three fatalities over a three-year period.
A 2020 Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) paper on fixed wing flight training said the continual uptake of experienced instructors by airlines had left the industry with a pool of lowtime, low-experience instructors, and that, along with poor supervision, contributed to the rising accident rate.
Cross-country flying was responsible for four out of nine fatal accidents, and the report also noted significant language and accent issues with the English spoken by some foreign students whose radio transmissions were confusing for other aircraft.
In response to questions, a written statement from CAA said it had been working on a flight training safety strategy over the past two years.
Efforts to address instructor training, experience and supervision included monitoring certified flight training schools, producing training material, and issuing guidance on crosscountry flights.
What about training Kiwi pilots?
Nicholson says it is telling that over the five years to the end of 2021, about 1700 international trainees gained fixed wing CPLs in New Zealand, compared with just 688 Kiwis.
Massey University’s School of Aviation takes mostly domestic students, and chief executive of Ashok Poduval is enormously frustrated that he can’t train more of them.
The cap on student loans for aviation courses put a flying career out of reach for many, and the Tertiary Education Commission has reduced the number of full-time equivalent students Massey can take from 150 to 126.
‘‘Last year we turned away about 20 students who qualified through the selection process,’’ Poduval says.
‘‘Here’s the irony, the whole world is looking for pilots and entry level pilots will soon be greatly in demand.’’