Manitoba flying school to spread wings in India

The rapidly expanding airline industry in India is prompting a Winnipeg business to explore expanding into South Asia.
Winnipeg Aviation already trains some pilots from India at its school in St. Andrews, Man., about 15 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
Winnipeg Aviation president Dan Reeves is now working out the logistics of opening a pilot-training school in India.
“They just can’t handle the massive numbers of young folks that want to get into the aviation industry over in India,” he said.
“It would be like a teacup in the ocean, but at this point, we think that it’s worth looking at anyways.”
Because of a lack of facilities in India, it can take a flight student as long as three years to become a pilot in the country, compared with about eight months in Canada, Reeves said.
“One of the things that the airlines did over there was they went to the flying schools and they raided all the flight instructors and the mechanics, so they basically left the flight schools without any instructors,” said Reeves.
Winnipeg Aviation estimates the total costs for its professional pilot training program at about $40,000, plus living expenses and travel costs for international students.
10/11/07 CBC Manitoba, Canada