Guernsey-based air taxi start-up, Waves, is planning to launch its own flight training academy early next year to offer islanders the opportunity to become commercial pilots.
The company, due to launch its on-demand air taxi service this month, has already employed a number of pilots to fly its first aircraft.
Its brand new aircraft has now come off the production line in the United States and will shortly begin its journey to Guernsey. In the meantime, Waves has today taken delivery of another Cessna Grand Caravan as a dedicated mission aircraft for academy training purposes, freight and other missions required in the islands. It will be re-registered as 2-CREW.
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“The chosen registration name 2-CREW was a key decision in both our training academy plan and our business model to operate our passenger fleet with two crew at all times,” said chief operating officer Matt Bisson.
“As a Channel Islands company, we have already started building teams in both Guernsey and Jersey but we know that qualified pilots with the flying experience we are stipulating are not readily available in the islands. We’ve already recruited a number of pilots to move across to Guernsey ahead of our launch but that’s not enough for us. We want to continue investing in the islands by launching the Waves training academy,” he said.
“This is something unique within the islands and offers students the chance to join an exciting and growing business and receive the highest level of training so that they can become commercial pilots and be an important part of Waves’ future expansion.”
The academy will see its first student intake join next year.
“Not everyone has the finances to fulfil their passion for flying and so we want to hear from anyone who is interested in becoming a commercial pilot with Waves. It’s possible they will never have been in a cockpit before or that they have done multiple flights, it doesn’t matter, they just need a passion and a commitment to helping Waves realise its ambitions of serving islanders,” said Mr Bisson.
