The achievements of eight students were celebrated at the Oamaru Opera House Inkbox on Thursday, with invited guests, academy staff and proud family members looking on.
Tarunsinh Dabhi, Joel Jacob, Jafa Jeddy, Rohit Ramesh, Vaomaran Rumthao, Navdeep Singh, Shridhar Viswanathan and Yuvarajan Saravanamooorthy were all handed their commercial pilot licences, and the latter was named student of the year.
Mr Saravanamooorthy (19), originally from Chennai, India, said the prize was an unexpected honour in what had already been a year of highs.
"It's been really great," he said of his time with the academy.
"It's just what I wanted.
"The award was not quite expected. I just did what I did and got it pretty much."
He now planned to head to Singapore, where his father lived, and then back to India, where his mother is based.
From there, his goal was to secure employment with an airline in either of those countries.
Earlier at the ceremony, academy head of training and chief flying instructor Celroy Mascarenhas spoke of how the idea for the flight school first came about after a series of conversations with the New Zealand Trade Academy in Christchurch.
The goal was to establish a nationally and internationally recognised flight school, which was well on the way to happening, he said.
He praised the students for the work they had put in over the past year.
"What you have achieved in the last 12 months ... is quite phenomenal."
