Diamond Aircraft’s Diamond Flight Centre is partnering with Fanshawe College, of London, Ont. to create a flight school designed to produce 80 commercial pilots a year with a variety of business skills. Students at the facility will complete a three-year diploma program that will prepare them for careers in the aviation industry. “The goal of it is to teach all the business skills they need to work in the industry at the corporate level, and working in airports and manufacturing. But it also comes with a commercial multi-engine pilot’s licence,” said Larry Weir, associate dean of the school’s Norton Wolf School of Aviation Technology.
Diamond Flight Centre will provide the training and the DA-40s the students will learn on with the goal of providing well-rounded workers for the expanding industry. “The aviation industry is growing so fast. In North America alone, we need 220,000 pilots over the next 20 years and almost the same number of flight attendants, and about 114,000 aircraft maintenance engineers,” he said.