British Airways at Pilot Careers Live North 2024, Manchester
Following its announcement at Pilot Careers Live Manchester, British Airways (BA) has confirmed that it will be funding the Speedbird Academy to the tune of £21m, ensuring up to 200 places for 2025.
Launched last year and open to applicants annually, the Academy is already training 100 future British Airways pilots who managed to beat off competition from more than 20,000 candidates to have the cost of their tuition paid for by the airline. Funding was in place for an initial 100 places on the 2025 programme, which has now been increased to 200.
BA’s Lucy Sylvester and Captain Suzanne Morgan joined the FLYER Livestream in January 2024 to talk more about the academy, which can be watched here.
Sean Doyle, British Airways’ Chairman and CEO, said: “I’m incredibly proud of the Speedbird Pilot Academy and the opportunity it provides to those talented individuals who have held a lifetime ambition of becoming a commercial airline pilot, but have perhaps found it difficult to independently fund their training. The standard of applicants we see for this programme are consistently high so as part of our commitment to attracting the very best candidates from right across society, we’ve increased the 2025 cohort to give as many people as possible the chance of realising their dream.”
