Cathay Pacific Partners PolyU for Relaunch of Cadet Pilot Training Programme

(29 Mar 2022, 11:49 +07)  Cathay Pacific is relaunching its Cadet Pilot training programme in a new collaboration with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

The airline’s original Cadet Pilot programme was suspended in March 2020 due to the emergence of COVID19.

The 55-60 week training course is structured so that candidates will undergo their ground theory lectures under the auspices of PolyU in Hong Kong. Successful candidates will then commence flight training in either Adelaide, Australia or Phoenix in the USA before returning to Cathay City for multi-crew simulator training.

The airline aims to welcome about 190 candidates in 2022, and will have the capacity to take in between 240 and 300 per year from 2023 to 2025. This compares to around 180 cadets trained in 2019.

Cathay Pacific is looking to recruit and train more than 800 local cadet pilots by 2025.

Since the inception of the Cadet Pilot programme in 1988, the airline has trained more than 1,000 cadet pilots from Hong Kong.

The Dean of Faculty of Engineering at PolyU, Ir Professor H.C. Man said: “PolyU is glad that the collaboration with Cathay Pacific in the Cadet Pilot training programme will provide opportunities to our younger generation to realise their dreams of becoming a commercial pilot. We are confident that such joint effort will further strengthen Hong Kong’s position as an international aviation centre.”

The first batch of 24 candidates starting the integrated course in Hong Kong were welcomed on Monday (28/3) and are scheduled to commence flight training in October after they have completed the ground theory portion of the programme.

In addition to running the new integrated courses at PolyU, Cathay Pacific will also conduct four additional training courses based upon the original programme module in Adelaide in 2022. The next batch of 24 candidates are due to commence the Adelaide programme course in late April.

Furthermore, Cathay Pacific is about to onboard the first of its fully trained and qualified cadets who were unable to join the airline in 2020 due to the pandemic. The airline expects to onboard all 150 such cadets throughout the remainder of 2022.

Flight Training Adelaide (FTA) is the current cadet training provider for Cathay Pacific and has supported the Cadet Pilot programme since 1994.

Greg Hughes, Chief Operations and Service Delivery Officer, said, “As Hong Kong’s home airline, we are committed to continuing to invest in its long-term future as a global aviation hub. PolyU and Hong Kong have the potential to become a centre for excellence and industry-leading aviation training that enables not just Cathay Pacific, but other airlines, to train cadets using a similar model. We hope that these new courses will inspire the next generation of prospective pilots in our home city ... We look forward to welcoming candidates who will be starting the new cadet courses and becoming part of the Cathay Pacific team upon graduation.”

Enrolment for the Cathay Pacific Cadet Pilot programme is currently open.

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