Council Holdings purchases flight school
Published on 11 September 2015
11 September 2015
Whanganui is to be the base for a commercial pilot training academy, bringing a new business and national and international students to the district.
Wanganui District Council Holdings Chair Matthew Doyle today announced that the Holding company has purchased an established flight school and will relocate it to Wanganui Airport.
“I am delighted to confirm that we will be establishing the Commercial Pilot Academy at Wanganui Airport,” Mr Doyle said.
“We have purchased well-established flight school Flight Training Manawatu and in the next year or so will relocate it from Feilding to Whanganui. The vendor is retiring after more than 20 years running the flight school and we have purchased the business as a going concern. The purchase includes planes, simulators and associated equipment.
“This is a strategic opportunity which we have been pursuing for some years to maximum the use of our existing airport assets and to bring new business and people to our district. We will need to provide new hangar facilities at Wanganui Airport and these will be leased by the flight school, bringing an additional tenant to the Airport. The school will also pay landing fees, increase the café revenue and support aircraft maintenance services.
“We have considered other flight training possibilities in the past but they have involved excessive commercial risk. However, Flight Training Manawatu is a profitable business with full certification and provides quality tuition and customer service, with a well-earned reputation for excellent pilot training. The company has two agents in India where the majority of international students come from.
“We have undertaken a rigorous due diligence process and completed all the regulatory and education registration processes required.”
As at the end of August 2015, the flight school had 42 students and 13 staff (including 11 instructors and two office staff), with a chief executive to be employed.
The flight school offers three diploma strands in the two-year NZ Diploma of Aviation programme, including general aviation, instructor and airline preparation qualifications.
The Commercial Pilot Academy Board has been established to oversee the business. It comprises Mr Doyle, Harvey Green (a director of the Holding company and chair of the Airport Management Board) and Charlie Anderson (District Councillor and CEO of Air Wanganui). The Board, which will report to the Wanganui District Council Holdings Board, is now in the process of appointing a chief executive officer.
“There is significant potential for growth in the business in the future but our initial focus will be on continuing to provide the excellent training courses already in place,” Mr Doyle said.
“There is demand for new commercial pilots as airline fleets grow worldwide, current personnel retire and new markets and opportunities open up.
“The school will remain at the Feilding Aerodrome for at least 12 months while we establish new hangars and educational facilities at Wanganui Airport and look at accommodation options for the students.”
Mayor Annette Main said the Wanganui District Council fully supported the purchase of the business.
“I congratulate the Holdings Board members on their hard work and enthusiasm in pursuing this exciting opportunity for Whanganui,” Mayor Main said.
“Our airport currently operates at a loss and some of this loss is funded by rates. In addition, there is potential risk around losing existing services and the possibility of the Crown withdrawing from the current joint venture arrangement for the airport.
“The flight academy will provide an opportunity to support the airport and its future viability, as well as addressing the debt that is currently being funded. The Crown is aware of the purchase of the flight school and is supportive of it but is not contributing financially.
“It’s exciting that our district will be home to students from throughout New Zealand and overseas while they are completing their diplomas. We have met the staff and many of the current students and they are intelligent and enthusiastic people who are passionate about the aviation industry. I know they will be an asset to our community.”
Wanganui Airport background and history of pilot training
Wanganui Airport, developed initially in the 1930s, has a significant pilot training history.
It was home to the Wanganui Commercial Pilot School (based at the Wanganui Aero Club from 1953 through until the 1980s) and also the home of New Zealand’s first commercial topdressing pilot training school operated by Dalcom Aviation Training. These were New Zealand's first full-time ground/air training courses for professional civil pilot licences and it was no accident that Wanganui was chosen as the base. The flying days available, abundance of available training areas, relatively low levels of turbulence and a large runway system provide a perfect flying training base.
The airport is a Joint Venture Airport, owned in equal partnership by the Wanganui District Council and the New Zealand Government (the Crown) through the Ministry of Transport. It is managed by the Wanganui Airport Authority, a business unit of the Wanganui District Council. The Authority is a full member of the NZ Airports Association with its manager an executive member of the association.
Capacity exists to immediately establish parking, hangar space, hard standing and taxiways for a greater capacity, together with offices, lecture facilities and maintenance buildings if and as required. There is more than 24,000 square metres of land that is immediately available and does not require any preparation, while a further 20,000 square metres requiring some earthworks can be also made available.
Maintaining a Civil Aviation Part 139 approval, the airport is well located, well maintained and well set out. It consists of one sealed runway and four grass runways, a sealed apron, a large grassed apron/aircraft park, fuel services, a passenger terminal and private maintenance facilities and hangers.
Resealing of the main runway and apron was completed in March 2007 and the refurbishment of the passenger terminal was completed in October 2007.
Favourable local weather and the airport’s proximity to a wide range of aviation services and facilities makes Wanganui well suited to providing pilot training.
Although the airport has not had air traffic control services since January 1989, an operational cost advantage in comparison to controlled airports, the airport has a perfect record in respect of safety within the local airspace. However, if control services are required in the future, the airport has the facilities necessary to enable these services to be established.
Within 90 nautical miles of Wanganui there are about 15 airports ranging from international to private, certificated and non-certificated, providing pilots with a wide range of airspace transition and aircraft control challenges.
The local flying training area offers low flying areas and terrain ranging from flat coastal plains and ocean through to rugged and steep back country, providing a wide range of opportunities for trainee pilots to experience high country flying and remote country navigation.
Operations from the airport include scheduled airlines, airline charter and air ambulance, fixed and rotary wing agricultural flying, military flying training and operations, and both fixed wing and rotary wing training.