Students from India, China save US flight schools

The worldwide credit crunch is forcing flight students to take up smaller student loans at higher interest rates, yet the impact on flight schools in the USA is minimised due to surging enrolment from China and India.
The revelation comes as students of the ill-fated Silver State Helicopters continue to wrestle with the debts they incurred when the world’s largest flight training academy filed for banckruptcy earlier this month.
Students need higher credit scores to qualify and are agreeing to shorter payment periods and a higher interest rate,” says Jeremy Wilson, marketing director of Seattle’s Galvin Flying Services.
At the same time, Wilson notes, airlines are hiring flight instructors with fewer hours. “The only way a flight school can retain an instructor is by paying him a higher rate, more benefits and so on, and that cost gets passed to the prospective new student,” he says.
Simultaneously, thousands of students from China and India are enrolling at US schools, which Wilson predicts will ease the financial impact. “There are no local aviation infrastructures in China and India to meet this demand,” he says.
19/02/08 Jeffrey Decker/Flightglobal.com