Lenders are interested in backing an aircraft pilot training fund that could aid Irish and European airlines in hiring flying crews.
The Pathfinder for Irish Aviation report, published earlier this year, calculated that a €40 million low-interest loan fund would allow the Republic train 400 pilots a-year from 100 currently.
Several credit unions are interested in managing the fund, while talks are ongoing with the State’s Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland on supporting it, according to Joe Gill, adjunct professor, Cork University Business School, one of the report’s writers.
Prof Gill will update the audience at the Kinsale Aviation Festival in the Co Cork town on Saturday on progress on the report’s various measures.
READ MORE
The yearly event will present a special Valour Award to Quebec Air Services for its efforts in fighting last winter’s fires in Los Angeles, California.
The Canadian service has an arrangement with California to support with fire fighting crews.
If Irish households are so rich, why does it feel like an illusion?
Quebec uses the Canadian designed and made amphibious CL-415 aircraft which can scoop water from lakes and dump it on the flames.
According to Prof Gill, 20 pilots, and 20 technicians and support staff, will receive the award
The conference features an interview with Pascal Duclos, Quebec Air Services chief pilot. Adeline Grenier, head of commercial affairs at the Canadian Embassy in the Republic, will accept the award on their behalf.
Quebec Air Service pilots faced “turbulence, congested airspace and visibility reduced by thick columns of smoke”, according to Prof Gill.
Battling the flames needed “rigorous daily maintenance to ensure the optimal performance of the aircraft,” he added.
Conor McCarthy, founder of Emerald Airlines and Dublin Aerospace, and Mitchelstown, Co Cork-native, Yvonne Moynihan, managing director, Wizz Air UK, will be speaking at the Kinsale event.
Mr McCarthy was one of many executives who contributed to the Pathfinder for Irish Aviation report, commissioned by air travel entrepreneur Declan Ryan’s investment business, Irelandia.
Europe will need 5,000 new pilots a-year for the next decade. Around 100 qualify in the Republic annually.
The report, co-written by former Eurocontrol chief, Eamonn Brennan, also called for Ireland to develop centres for maintenance, repair and overhaul.
Airports including Derry have signalled their willingness to host such a facility, while Northern Ireland could support an engine overhaul centre, Prof Gill noted.
