The New Zealand Airline Academy (NZAA) based at Oamaru Airport is starting to welcome back international students for the first time since March 2020, when New Zealand’s borders closed and the country went into lockdown.
Academy chief executive Jonathan Manuel said two international students had arrived and another 18 were expected by the end of the month.
They were all cadets as part of the academy’s training partner contract with AirAsia India.
Once the borders had reopened to the rest of the world, Mr Manuel expected to have about 100 students at the academy.
To prepare for the influx, two new aircraft were due to arrive by the end of the month.
Demand for pilots was high, and Mr Manuel was "very, very optimistic" for the year ahead.
"We’re quite excited about the future," he said.
But had the borders remained closed to international students any longer, the future was not looking so bright for the academy, which exclusively trains international students and had just 10 remaining.
"It’s been a big struggle — it’s been a very big struggle," Mr Manuel said.
"Had they kept the borders closed for longer, then we would probably have had to shut down."
When New Zealand went into lockdown, the academy was training 83 students and employed about 31 staff. It also had about 100 applications from international students wanting to come to Oamaru to start their training.
Having a big cohort of students arrive between December 2019 and March 2020 had been a "real blessing" for the academy, Mr Manuel said.
"They’ve been keeping us going."
By "God’s grace", they did not have to make any staff redundant. As things started slowing down, several staff decided to move on themselves, but many were returning now international students were back.
In 2019, NZAA secured a contract with AirAsia India to train commercial pilots for the airline in Oamaru. Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher travelled to India with Mr Manuel to sign the agreement, and cadets started arriving in Oamaru later that year.
Mr Manuel said AirAsia India had been "kind enough" to commit to continuing to send students to the Oamaru academy when the borders reopened, but there was a lot of work to be done to reconnect with other international agents and promote New Zealand as a training destination again.
"It’s like starting from scratch, pretty much. The only saving grace is, probably, that they know us," Mr Manuel said.
International students injected a significant amount of money into the local economy, each paying about $100,000 for tuition, and most lived in Oamaru for about 12 to 14 months. The academy itself had also made a commitment to support local wherever possible, using up to 30,000 litres of fuel from McKeown Group each month, and the hostel went through about 9000kg of chicken a year, sourced from a local butchery, Mr Manuel said.
"Even though we have had opportunities to buy products out of Oamaru, at a cost lower than what we get here in Oamaru, we still do that," he said.
"Our commitment has been to Oamaru."
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"Even though we have had opportunities to buy products out of Oamaru, at a cost lower than what we get here in Oamaru, we still do that," he said.
"Our commitment has been to Oamaru."
Why would a person who makes his living in Oamaru make a silly statement such as he has been recorded saying? Knowing how some people negotiate one would believe that if he were to find a better deal out of town he would certainly use that as bargaining power to seek a better deal from the Oamaru folk. Hard nosed business people don't make money by being nice to local businesses.