Spending $13.6 million on 32 new airplanes by Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology will likely assist the aviation industry in correcting the ongoing pilot shortage, a company executive said.
Spartan recently took delivery of the 5,000th Piper Archer aircraft at the college’s flight facility at Jones Riverside Airport in Tulsa.
“Spartan has made a significant investment to improve our student experience with its new fleet,” said Josh Kaiser, senior vice president of marketing at Spartan College.
But that’s not all.
Spartan is intent to help alleviate the pilot shortage that has plagued the entire nation.
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. was already facing a shortage of pilots due to national and global demand,” according to the 2020 Boeing Market Outlook (BMO) released in October.
Boeing predicts that near and long-term market adjustments will still require replacement of ‘tens of thousands of pilots and trained technicians due to retirement age. Over the next decade, educational outreach and career pathway programs will be essential to inspiring and recruiting the next generation.’”
Continuing to invest in the student experience is critical. With the addition of the Piper Archers, Spartan students will be trained with industry-leading technology such as electronic flight bags and the latest Garmin G1000 avionics system.
“By teaching Spartan students on features like the flight management system, weather, traffic, terrain, and autopilot, the students will receive professional environment experiences in a training environment to better prepare and equip them with the experiences to succeed in the aviation industry,” said Beau Schrader, Spartan College’s vice president of flight operations in Tulsa.
Spartan CEO Rob Polston is confident the aviation industry will rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As the world economies bounce back from the temporary setback of COVID-19 – which they inevitably will – air travel will resume, just as it has after every major external shock from the energy crisis, to the financial crisis and SARS,” he said in a previous statement to Businesswire.com. “Despite what the technology giants hope, there is no substitution for the business and personal connections that come with flying from one destination to another.”
Spartan College is trying to address the pilot shortage by offering students options to train for pilot certification. Training to become a pilot at Spartan will give students the skills and experience necessary to earn multiple Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot certifications in 17 months.
Flightglobal.com reported in November that the global civil aviation industry will require an estimated 27,000 new pilots from the end of 2021, or 264,000, during the coming decade. That forecast comes from Canadian training and simulator provider CAE.
This year, the number of active pilots has declined year on year by around 87,000 to about 300,000, but will bump up to an estimated 374,000 by the end of 2021, CAE estimated.
Since 1928, Spartan has provided training to more than 100,000 pilots and technicians throughout the United States and more than 60 other countries. With locations in Tulsa, Okla., Broomfield, Colo., Inglewood, Calif., and Riverside, Calif., Spartan offers programs in the areas of aviation flight, aviation maintenance technology, electronics technology, nondestructive testing technology, and quality control management.