Aviation training center to open at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport

Toowoomba hopes to attract a new wave of high-flying international students to the Darling Downs with the establishment of a new aviation training center at Wellcamp.

A partnership between the Airline Academy of Australia, the University of Southern Queensland and the newly built Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport to build the Wellcamp Aviation Education Precinct will be announced on Friday.

Airline Academy of Australia director Craig Duncan said the demand for such a facility was potentially huge, particularly from international students who might study in Queensland.

"Twenty-eight new pilots a day are required in the Asia-Pacific region – that's every day," he said.

"The industry in that region cannot satisfy the demand, so they've got to train high-quality professional pilots and professional aircraft maintenance engineers and we do that."

The partnership would see an aviation training precinct developed at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport, which would permanently house light aircraft and employ full-time instructors.

"We've got great topography, largely favorable weather conditions - apart from last week here at Archerfield (in which AAA lost an airplane) - and we have western decision making and mature processes around that," Mr Duncan said.

"It's an absolutely fantastic spot to do this out at Wellcamp."

Mr Duncan said while the academy would maintain its current base at Brisbane's Archerfield Airport, the opportunity for students to train at a functioning commercial airport would be invaluable.

"One of the benefits of working in that environment as it grows is for our professional pilots to learn to operate at a professional airport," he said.

"We do a little bit of that here at Archerfield, because we're under the flight path to Brisbane [Airport], but largely speaking it's a training airport here.

"So this allows for a level of complexity for our pilot trainees, which is really good for our students because if they're going to be flying a 777 or another big aircraft, they've got to know this stuff."

With Brisbane West Wellcamp set to welcome its second regular airline early next year, Mr Duncan said he was not concerned about increased air passenger and freight traffic squeezing his operations out down the track.

"There are plenty of times in a day for a well-run airport to operate these sorts of services, so we see no issue with that," he said.

Wagners chairman John Wagner, whose family built Brisbane West Wellcamp, said the agreement was a "major coup" for the Toowoomba region.

"This agreement, which coincides with other lucrative opportunities we have in the pipeline due to Australia's new free-trade agreement with China, will put Toowoomba and the Darling Downs on the map, both nationally and internationally," he said.

USQ vice chancellor Jan Thomas said the university would consider offering aircraft maintenance engineering, logistics, electronics, navigation and communication systems training as part of its courses.

 "With the Darling Downs poised to capture a new era in aviation history through the development of the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport it's only logical that USQ plays a pivotal role in the education of the next generation of aviation specialists," she said.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au