For 11 young gentlemen, finishing the
much coveted type-rating course for the Airbus A320 aircraft is a fulfilment of
their youthful dream to fly a big commercial aircraft. After all, Airbus is one
of two commercial planes most used the world over.
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| The graduates, front row : left to right, Farzad Ghasemzadeh, Barry Goesaert, Joao Dias, Felipe Alves, Michael Dos Santos, Erik Odegard. Back row: left to right, Dino Tabingo, Khedel Tan, John Gulla, Nuno Alves, Peter Binamira |
The eleven ended their A320 type
rating at the Philippine Academy for Aviation Training (PAAT) with the
commencement exercises held at the PAAT in Clark last Sept. 21. After all of
them successfully passed their check rides, they now form part of Cebu
Pacific’s stable pool of pilots for its fleet and route expansion programs.
The graduates were: John Gulla,
Khedehl Tan, Dino Tabingo and Barry Goesaert from the first batch; Michael Dos
Santos, Erik Odegard, Joao Dias, Felipe Alves and Nuno Alves, from the second batch
and Peter Binamira and Farzad Ghasemzadeh from the third batch. Together, these
three batches received their certificates of completion during the formal
graduation ceremony.
At the “send-off” graduation last Saturday,
Barry Goesaert, who was in the first set to apply for the A320 type- rating course, expressed
excitement, a sentiment shared by his peers, about finally being able to sit in
the cockpit and be in command of a plane that carries hundreds of passengers
and tons of cargo. Before, he only flew single engine cargo planes during his
basic pilot training course.
The half Filipino, half Belgian Goesaert,
who spoke on behalf of the graduates, said a recent study on Pilot-Technician Outlook
showed that Asia Pacific region would need 192,000 pilots, the most in the
world from 2013-2032. “And this is where we are!” he exclaimed.
Considering the heavy demand for
pilots today, it is a very opportune time for aspiring pilots here and around
the region to have
“the best Airbus Type Rating Training Organization, i.e, the Philippine Academy
for Aviation Training, giving us the best preparation for the real world,” Goesaert said.
“Whether we come from the
Philippines, Norway, Portugal, Iran and that small country, Belgium, all of us
trainees shared a common dream to become an airline pilot. The PAAT family
helped us realize our dream. We all now work for Cebu Pacific. Everyone here at
PAAT and not to forget the HR department of Cebu Pacific was extremely
helpful,” he further said.
According to Capt. Jim Sydiongco,
Vice President for Flight Operations of Cebu Pacific, who was among the VIP
guests at the graduation ceremony, Cebu Pacific would need much more pilots for
2014 alone to service its increased fleet, flight frequency and routes here and
abroad.
PAAT Head of Training (ret) Capt.
Ronaldo Mendoza challenged the graduates to “go the extra degree” to make it
big as pilots as he stressed that Cebu Pacific’s approach
is to “hire for attitude and train for skills.”
John Gulla, another graduate said he
was able to enroll at PAAT because his parents had long prepared for it. He
took his initial flying lessons after taking a college degree on Aerospace
Engineering in London and then his single-engine flying course was in the US.
He said he could have stayed and continued
training in the US but he chose PAAT because of the “opportunity to work with
Cebu Pacific after our type rating course and successful check rides,” Gulla
said. For him, PAAT was his only choice for type rating because everything from
training manuals, the course syllabus and the instructors were all standardized
by Airbus, which is the manufacturer of the Airbus A320, the most widely used
aircraft in the world. .
Asked whether they have plans for
another training facility in the Philippines, CAE’s Asia Business Leader, Tom
Ferranti said the PAAT center is the only CAE training center in the
Philippines with room to expand by the addition of more simulators and additional
training programs.
No doubt, a type rating course can be
expensive, but the returns and rewards are worth every cent, as the PAAT
graduates can attest to. But students can get a loan from a bank by getting
themselves pre-qualified for employment in an airline such as Cebu Pacific with
the employment commitment as among the collaterals.
Aside from being assured of
world-class quality training, one advantage of taking the Airbus type-rating at
PAAT is that the trainees already have one foot in the door of Cebu Pacific
which makes banks more comfortable to grant loans, said Arvi Perez, General
Manager of PAAT. He stressed however that aside from Cebu Pacific, PAAT also
offers its training services to all other domestic and foreign airlines.
