Guardian

THERE is a serious shortage of core aviation personnel with only ageing local manpower such as the pilots, licensed aircraft engineers and licensed aviation engineers. This situation has negative effects on a sector that is safety-driven.

Since the liquidation of the former national carrier, Nigeria Airways, many of the trained and experienced workers have either died or retired, leaving a few that are now threatened out of existence by the influx of their foreign counterparts.

In solving the problem, Bristow Helicopters has signed Memoranda of Understanding with NCAT for the training, estimating that it takes between $250,000 and $300,000 to train a pilot.

The Managing Director of the firm, Captain Akin Oni, said the company plans to have 100 per cent Nigerian pilots to take over from expatriates.

Oni explained that over 2,000 Nigerians from different parts of the country applied for sponsorship to be trained as pilots but that out of this number, only 16 were selected by Bristow Helicopters after a very rigorous screening process, adding that three of the 16 successful candidates are women.

Oni, who was represented by the General Manager, Human Resources, Femi Collins, noted that the essence of the sponsorship is to train another batch of Nigerians to be pilots in the organisation in particular and the Nigerian aviation industry in general.

He explained that while those without experience will proceed for their training at both NCAT and Aviation College Ilorin for between seven to eight weeks after which they will proceed to Bristow Helicopters Academy in Florida, United States, those with aviation background will fly to Florida direct for a 12 months training.

According to him, “we do this yearly and this year out of over 2,000 candidates that applied for sponsorship, we have selected 16 of them and these people are today being given final briefs before they depart for their various trainings. The training itself is divided into two. Many of them who have no experience in aviation at all would be sent to local training schools; NCAT in Zaria and the College of Aviation Ilorin. The idea is for them to be given an introductory training in flying and they will be there for between seven and eight weeks. Another reason why we are sending them for these training is to take advantage of the local expertise in the aviation training in Nigeria so as to ensure that the Nigerian local content policy is deepened”.