[Peetwo]

Via Oz Aviation...

AND THE WINNER IS ….. TOOWOOMBA!
written by Australianaviation.Com.Au September 27, 2018


Construction of the academy’s new facilities at Wellcamp Airport will commence next month.[/i][/align]

Qantas has announced Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba as the first of two sites for its pilot training academy.

The facility at Wellcamp Airport, which will be built to handle up to 250 students a year and will comprise a new hangar, classrooms and accommodation facilities, is expected to open in mid-2019, Qantas announced on Thursday.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Wellcamp Airport owner and operator Wagner Corporation director Denis Wagner made the official announcement at Wellcamp Airport.

Robyn Ironside @ironsider

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce announcing Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport will be the site of the first Qantas pilot training academy.


10:22 AM - Sep 27, 2018

Construction of the $35 million facility is expected to start in October, with the “majority of this funding contributed from private sector partners”.

Further, Qantas said L3 Commercial Aviation will be the training provider for the Toowoomba site. It will be the company’s first training school in Australia. Qantas said L3 will use a mix of modern single and twin-engine aircraft with glass cockpits to support the training.

Joyce said the pitch from the airport, state and local governments, and the local community convinced Qantas that Toowoomba was a great choice.
“Toowoomba will be an amazing place to learn to fly,” Joyce said in a statement.

“It’s home to Australia’s newest airport and offers over 300 days of Queensland sunshine each year and an environment that is textbook for pilot training.

“In partnership with the Queensland Government and the Wagner Corporation, who own the airport, we’ll build state-of-the-art training facilities and student accommodation. What we’re ultimately creating is a world-class pilot school for students from Australia and around the globe.”

Wellcamp was chosen from a list of nine shortlisted regional centres announced earlier in 2018.

Qantas planned to have a second location for its flight school up and running by 2020, with the remaining eight cities on the shortlist – Alice Springs, Bendigo, Busselton, Dubbo, Launceston, Mackay, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga were still under consideration for the second academy site.


Qantas plans to establish the Qantas Group Pilot Academy, expected to open its doors during 2019. (Qantas)

The airline said about 18,000 people have registered their interest in the academy.

Premier Palaszczuk welcomed the investment being made in Toowoomba.
“The Q in Qantas stands for Queensland and it’s clear that home is where Qantas’s heart is,” Palaszczuk said in the Qantas statement.

Wagner said the world-class facilities would “enhance the training opportunities for our future airline pilots”.

“This decision by the Qantas Group highlights that when the private sector, Australia’s national carrier, the Queensland State Government and our local Council work cohesively, we can achieve a long term economically sustainable future for our regional communities,” Wagner said.


A QantasLink Q400 touches down at Wellcamp Airport. (Wellcamp)

Via the Oz today: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/busines...c538c8be38

Wagners to build Qantas academy
ROBYN IRONSIDE
The Toowoomba family that built an airport in 19 months will establish a Qantas pilot academy by the middle of next year.

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The Toowoomba family that built a new airport in 19 months has been tasked to establish the first Qantas Pilot Training Academy by the middle of next year.

The Wagners, who recently won a $3.7 million defamation lawsuit against broadcaster Alan Jones, are stumping up much of the $35m cost of the new facilities at their Wellcamp Airport.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce flew into Toowoomba yesterday to announce the site of the first flight school, with the US-based L3 Commercial Aviation as the training provider.

Although Qantas will have a presence on site, the airline was unable to say how many of its own employees would work there.

Mr Joyce said the “best airport had won” the race for the first academy, with a further eight cities still in the running for a second ­facility.

“They had the best proposition in terms of facilities, the time frame, the community where people can be based, the attractiveness of it, the location to Brisbane and the world gateway,” he said.

“And having the Queensland government getting fully behind it was critical, and having the Wagners as the airport owners getting fully behind it.”

Denis Wagner said the family expected a good return on its “significant investment” in the academy through a commercial arrangement with Qantas.

“Our obligations are to have it operational by July next year so work will start in the morning,” Mr Wagner said.

“The academy is on our land so we’ll have a commercial arrangement with Qantas to provide those facilities on an annual basis.”

Mr Joyce said in the first year, 250 pilots would be trained at the academy for the Qantas Group but in future years the two training academies would turn out pilots for other airlines.

With industry forecasts suggesting an additional 790,000 pilots would be needed worldwide in the next 20 years, demand was expected to be high, he said.

“Given the Qantas brand name for the selection and training of pilots is second to none, we think we can use that to actually make it a business opportunity,” said Mr Joyce. “That’s why we’re making it two schools. We will not need 500 pilots a year for Qantas so a significant amount of those will be for other airlines and overseas training.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk applauded the decision but would not reveal how much money taxpayers had pitched in to secure the facility.

MTF...P2