Graduates Time-Build to 1,500 hrs in Charter, Pilot Jobs Over CFI Norm in Joint Program to Create New Professionals

Current Aviation of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas and the Training Division of AIRO Group of Albuquerque are joining hands to provide commercial pilot training ahead of the looming pilot shortage. 

The deal will see Airo’s full-spectrum commercial pilot approach integrated into Current’s curriculum, with training taking place on multi-engine aircraft geared towards professional aviation work. Current will use its network to help students overcome the 1,500 hour hurdle by hunting down opportunities to build hours as they work in smaller aircraft. Those jobs are expected to come from charter work or smaller aircraft where minimum time requirements are more accessible for prospective employees. 

“The implications of this approach for long-term stable pilot employment and the commercial aviation industry are significant,” said Beakley. “Partnering with AIRO helps us leverage decades of commercial flight training experience and a proven flight training curriculum purpose-built for careers in commercial aviation.”

The partnership comes at a good time, hoping to begin creating future ATP’s ahead of a worsening shortage. The airline industry may have weathered the storm of 2020, but they came out the other side even shorter on qualified aviators after a year of early retirements (sometimes even layoffs) and career changes as their employees navigated the changing economy. Today, major carriers have begun to eye the establishment of in-house flight schools to farm new personnel themselves, finding stocks of hirable regional airline pilots just as depleted as the rest.

“Long-term, this partnership helps put qualified pilots into the pipeline more quickly – benefiting carriers and the communities they serve – and gives aspiring pilots an opportunity to choose a career in commercial aviation that fits their lifestyles, whether that be in regional or major airline flying,” Perrin said. “AIRO is proud to partner with Current Aviation, and to be a part of this unique solution in commercial aviation. The AIRO Holdings Group is committed to addressing key issues facing the Aerospace and Defense industry.”
 
“This is no time for business-as-usual thinking,” Beakley said. “We are laying the groundwork for a more rational approach to flight training aimed specifically at the realities of today’s commercial airline industry realities and tomorrow’s opportunities.”

FMI: www.currentaviation.com, www.theairogroup.com