ST Aerospace Academy completes MPL course for Tiger Airways

Singapore's ST Aerospace Academy has successfully completed the country's first Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL) programme for Tiger Airways.

The programme’s six cadet pilots are now under the employment of Tiger Airways and will receive their MPL from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) in early October. They are expected to fly the Airbus A320 as First Officers.

Established in December 2009, the programme comprised six months of ground school and 13 months of flying training involving four phases. Phase one was conducted at STAA’s flying school at Ballarat, while phases two to four and ground school were conducted at STAA’s headquarters and MPL base in Singapore.

The STAA MPL curriculum put cadet pilots into the A320 simulator environment right from the start of phase two training to maximises the students’ learning time in the cockpit environment of the aircraft that they will eventually work in.

The syllabus also introduces the A320 cockpit to students progressively, allowing them to fully master the principles and practical handling of aircraft systems before Line Oriented Flight Training.

“Tiger Airways is pleased that our six cadet pilots have successfully completed their training with STAA,” Tiger Airways Singapore Managing Director Stewart Adams said.

“The strength of the STAA MPL programme lies in its focus and relevance for commercial airlines. Trainees were placed in the multi-crew cooperation environment right from the start and they were also coached and assessed against a clearly defined set of competencies continuously.

“We will certainly continue to consider the STAA MPL programme to meet our operational needs for pilots in the future.”

In other STAA news, the academy has just announced plans to invest $15 million over the next six months to expand its training operations at Ballarat Airport. It has acquired a new facility at the airport that includes 1300sqm of administrative space and 7700sqm of classrooms.

STAA is also developing a new Flight Operations Centre (FOC) at Ballarat, due for completion by year's end. The FOC will feature an apron that can accommodate up to 40 aircraft - double the number tha can be held at the current STAA apron at Ballarat.

STAA also has a new A320 simulator arriving at its Seletar Aerospace Park training base in July 2012.