Hong Kong-based Young Brothers Aviation has purchased the BAE Systems Flight Training Adelaide pilot training school and renamed it Flight Training Adelaide (FTA). The UK company had owned the business since 1998.
FTA is pleased with the handover, says chief executive Keith Morgan. BAE practised a top-down management style that proved cumbersome in securing training contracts with Asian airlines, says another FTA executive at the school. FTA expects the decision-making process to accelerate, giving the profitable school more flexibility in offering training, the executive adds.
Young Brothers Aviation now owns the school’s 38 aircraft. FTA also maintains and crews a Bombardier Learjet 45 that is owned by Cathay Pacific Airways. The school has 120 students and has pilot-training contracts with Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Dragonair, Emirates, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department, Qantas and Zhejiang Airlines.
BRENT HANNON/SHANGHAI
Source: Flight International
