The development of general aviation will create jobs for some of the over 300 unemployed pilots, the Rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), the Rector has said.
General aviation is the operation of private and business jets by individuals and organisations not involved in scheduled flights.
The Rector urged young pilots to begin their career with light airplanes until they acquire experience, encouraging them to start with general aviation, as it is the perfect training ground.
According to regulatory requirements, pilots for general aviation require about 250 flight hours to operate such aircraft.
The NCAT boss said pilots needed to continue flying to garner enough experience to enable them to become employable by commercial airlines.
He, however, noted that training pilots is a huge burden on airlines, especially as many of them leave for greener pastures later.
His words: “This is the issue the ministry and airline operators are discussing; it is receiving the government’s attention, but NCAT cannot get involved in seeking jobs for its graduates. We are a training institution. We can train people, we can give references when you finish, but we cannot get involved in getting jobs for our graduates.
“Some of them go into general aviation and fly light and medium aircraft to gain experience before they eventually qualify to go for Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL), before they can join commercial airlines. This is the practice in the United States and elsewhere,” he said.
He, however, warned on the cost of training a fresher from the college on a jet, explaining that pilots are trained through trial by fire and that it would be a humongous mistake to train a young pilot with an aircraft having hundreds of passengers.
“But when you now have 100, sometimes 300 passengers sitting in the back and you have someone in training, you don’t want him to make mistakes; otherwise those passengers may never fly with that airline again. So, it is not the ideal training environment. So, you find that the training takes too long and it is expensive, and at the end of the day, the airline says ‘this man is not trainable’ and they stop training – that is why a lot of airlines are reluctant to start bringing people.”
The Rector also said the planned establishment of a national carrier would also help create employment due to the migration of the experienced pilots, creating openings in their present positions for young pilots.
