- August 09th, 2007
SriLankan Airlines welcomed nine more young pilots recently, after they successfully completed a comprehensive Cadet Pilot Training Programme at the National Carrier.
The nine Junior First Officers received their ‘Wings’ on 12th July from Peter Hill, the airline’s CEO, amidst the applause of their parents and family members, at a special ceremony at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport.
Mr. Hill said: “We at SriLankan Airlines take great pride in the very high standards of safety and service that this airline has maintained for 28 years. It is this same spirit amongst all our staff that has enabled SriLankan to become the commercial success that it is today. We are proud to say that we have achieved profitability in seven of the nine years since this airline was privatized in 1998, and have not required even one cent from the Government of Sri Lanka.”
“Receiving one’s wings is a landmark achievement in the career of a pilot, and every one of these young pilots has a tremendous responsibility to everyone on board each flight, and to all their colleagues at the airline to maintain this well earned reputation,” said Mr. Hill.
SriLankan has trained nearly 100 new local pilots in the last seven years, among them the first three women to qualify as pilots in the country, and also several former flyers from the Sri Lanka Air Force. SriLankan has an all-Airbus fleet and the new pilots have been trained to operate the A320 medium-range aircraft. They will later receive training on long-haul A330s and A340s.
Captain Dick Hutton, Chief Technical Officer at SriLankan, said: “This is a proud day for all those who helped train these youngsters and mold them into pilots – from their parents who supported them to the instructors who taught them.”
Selection for SriLankan’s Cadet Pilot Training Programme is extremely competitive. Those selected undergo a rigorous six months’ programme where they are taught everything from the physics of flight in classrooms to hands-on aircraft engineering sessions at the airline’s workshops. They undergo various exams at every step of the process, and flight simulator training overseas.
Junior First Officer Duminda Udabage, speaking at the ceremony on behalf of the new pilots, said: “From the first day we walked into SriLankan Airlines, our dreams began to take shape. We learned from some of the best and most experienced instructors and senior pilots at the airline who believed in us and put their trust in us.”
The professionalism of SriLankan’s pilots was a major factor in the airline being named “World’s Most Efficient Operator of Airbus A330s (small fleet)” by Airbus Industrie
|
