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Tripoli, 2 April 2014:
The future of Libya’s blighted aviation industry is starting to look brighter, with 520 trainee pilots starting courses . . .[restrict]in the UK and Ireland.
The trainees will be studying English as the first element in a two-part training project. The English component, with a particular focus on the language of aviation, will last around nine months, according to Tevfik Sekerci, the commercial director of Prime Education – the UK-based company employed by the Ministry of Transport to sort out logistics, including administration and visas.
By the end of this course, students are expected to have reached the required level of English to move on to the pilot training programme. This will be conducted at four different UK and Irish aviation schools, all of which are based near airports. This is expected to take at least a further year to complete, Sekerci said.
Some 90 trainee pilots from state airline Afriqiyah Airways are already studying in Cork, Ireland, he added.
The training programme is part of a Ministry of Transport project aimed at boosting the aviation sector. Under this initiative, 108 trainee Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) will also be heading to the UK for language and industry training in June. They will be studying aviation English for a year, followed by a further year of ATC training.
“The Ministry of Transport is very interested in developing the Libyan aviation sector and it is particularly interested in bringing UK aviation skills to Libya,” said Sekerci. “This project is part of a long-term plan to enhance the aviation sector and the future of the country.”
The Ministry was also very pleased with the visa success rate, he said, with only three students having their applications rejected, because of problems with their passports. Deputy Transport Minister Fattallah Moktar made a special visit to England to resolve previous visa-related issues.
The pilot courses will see trainees working towards three different categories of licence – private pilot, commercial pilot and air transport passenger pilot, Sekerci said. The licences will ultimately be issued by the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority (LYCAA). Once the training is completed, the pilots are expected to return to Libya, with “frozen” licences, until they clock up enough flying hours to gain full licences. [/restrict]
