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Cathay Pacific
Hong KongTransport

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific cadet pilots to stay at US flight school despite solo flight ban

  • Cathay Pacific’s Tim Burns says trust in US-based AeroGuard Flight Training Centre remains, despite solo flight ban for city trainees after string of mistakes

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Planes at the AeroGuard Flight Training Centre in the US, which has banned solo flights by Cathay Pacific cadets after three incidents. Photo: Facebook
Cannix Yau
A training contract between Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways and its US flight school partner will continue, despite three serious incidents involving city trainees.

Tim Burns, Cathay Pacific’s general manager for flying, said on Tuesday the airline’s confidence in Arizona-based AeroGuard Flight Training Centre was unchanged and that there was no cause for concern about the cadets’ professional standards as there were several assessments made throughout their training course.

“They have amazing facilities for pilot training,” Burns said. “In Arizona, they assured us that the weather was good enough to do a lot of flying … so our confidence with the flying school has not changed.

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“And it would be a shame to just point to a couple of incidents which happened recently to say that the cadet programme, or even our relationship with AeroGuard, should come under scrutiny.”

Concerns were raised over the quality of Cathay’s cadet pilots after the flight school banned solo flights by city trainees after a string of major mistakes.
Tim Burns is Cathay’s general manager for flying. Photo: Yik Yeung-man
Tim Burns is Cathay’s general manager for flying. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

The airline said last week that it was taking the incidents seriously.

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