The national airline, which has been riddled with a serious shortage of pilots this year, also has 90 percent of its 60 local pilots being trained through this cadet program which has been running for several years.
The seven cadet pilots will be departing Port Moresby this month to undergo an 18-month training program at Coffs Harbor in New South Wales, Australia.
Air Niugini chief executive Wasantha Kumarasiri said the national carrier was committed to ensuring PNG had a vibrant civil aviation industry.
“We want to see more and more PNG pilots flying and we acknowledge the fact that some of them will go elsewhere after going through the cadet program. But they also will have to come back and serve some hours with us before they can leave,” he said.
He said the cadet pilots will be trained on single and twin engine aircraft.
On completion they will receive student pilot licenses followed by commercial and air transport licenses.
Kumarasiri said most of the cadets were selected from universities and TAFE colleges with only one year 12 graduate.
He said another five cadet pilots were undergoing similar training in Australia and would return at the end of this month.
Kumarasiri said five of the airline’s avionic cadets became the first to complete their maintenance authority training from Aviation Australia under the cadet engineering program.
Following this training, the cadets completed their type ratings on Air Niugini aircraft.
The ratings or licenses allowed engineers to carry out full maintenance on an aircraft before releasing it to service.
Kumarasiri said the five cadets were gaining experience by flying about 800 flying hours on Dash 8 aircraft.
He said the cadet engineering program started in 2002 with eight students followed by six in 2003.
Nine students were undergoing training and expected to graduate later this year, he said.
