Foreign pilots receive float plane certification

• “Sri Lanka on course to become regional training hub”: Millennium Flight Academy official

Foreign student Captain Hirantha Perera (right) and Deepak Sellvaraj receiving training certificate from Millennium Flight Academy

The Millennium Flight Academy (MFA) has completed and awarded float plane ratings for its first batch of foreign pilots, the flying school said in a statement released to the media. The foreign pilots who are from India will go on to fly float planes in the Maldives, the company added. The Millennium Flight Academy is approved and audited by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, which is widely respected as being among the best regulators in the Asian region in terms of stringent safety and operating standards. According to Millennium Airlines Head of Business Development Ishan Munaweera, the Academy was conceived from the ground up to meet the highest global training standards, with a full complement of certification options and a fleet of dedicated aircraft that have been brought down to the country specifically for training purposes. Munaweera explained that since launching in April this year, the academy had conducted over 900 hours of training and has a current student body of 30 pilots undergoing various stages of certification.   “This is the first time that foreign students have opted to come to Sri Lanka to receive float plane certifications. The conversion courses are quite complex and require advanced training, as students have to learn to land on water bodies instead of hard runways. We use a very advanced aircraft compared to courses in the USA for example and this gives our students a good advantage when applying for jobs. We are very proud to be the only facility in the country that has the capability to offer such courses and are very pleased that we have already trained five foreign pilots, with another five more in the pipeline for January next year,” added Millennium Flight Academy Director/Accountable Manager Sunil Silva. According to Silva, MFA is the only float rating facility in South Asia, and is the closest float rating facility to the Maldives, where the world’s largest float plane fleet is based, with close to 50 aircraft servicing tourism transfers to over 200 resorts scattered throughout the tropical archipelago of over 1,000 islands. Industry officials have long pushed for Sri Lanka to expand into flight training. With relatively uncrowded skies and numerous water bodies, airfields, hilly and coastal terrain, the country offers students a challenging and diverse training environment, unlike in typical flying schools in the desert towns of the Midwestern United States where many students learn to fly. The Millennium Flight Academy operates a fleet of three dedicated trainer aircraft and is a part of the Millennium Airlines Group, which also operates a separate fleet of helicopters and aircraft under the Simplifly brand. Flying training is conducted at the Simplifly facility in Ratmalana, where students are given the opportunity to live the life of a pilot from their first day, with immersion and exposure to flight planning, operations and engineering, while MFA’s ground training centre consists of multimedia equipped and air-conditioned class rooms, computer based training, a well stocked library and learning resources centre where students can study or receive tutoring, watch aviation videos, and handle aircraft instruments and equipment. The ground training team is comprised of highly experienced and qualified pilots, instructors and engineers who possess the capability and requisite knowledge to produce excellent skilled, disciplined and successful young pilots that meet the expectations of airlines. In addition to float ratings, the academy offers Private and Commercial Pilot Licenses, Transition training on advanced aircraft and Instructor ratings as well. “I want to congratulate Sunil and his team for bringing MFA to the standard where foreign students choose to train with us. This is a real testament to the hard work of the MFA team. The fact that the Maldives Civil Aviation Authorities have endorsed our training courses and have granted these pilots their licenses to fly in the Maldives make it a particularly significant milestone for our vision to make Sri Lanka a preferred destination for advanced flight training. I see great potential going forward to build on this platform,” said Suren Mirchandani, Founder and Vice Chairman of Millennium Airlines, which also owns domestic airline Simplifly.