Pilot Training College to be Established @ Cambridge Airport

Pilot Training College (PTC) has selected Cambridge Airport as the location for its new professional flight training academy, Pilot Training College (Cambridge), pending CAA approval, which is expected by Autumn this year.

“We are pleased to welcome a professional flight training provider of PTC’s calibre who can benefit from our academic brand and superb facilities. This also fulfills part of our commercial strategy to attract a professional flight training organisation to Cambridge,” said Archie Garden, Airport Director. “PTC will also be able to draw on the fully equipped classroom facilities provided by the Marshall Aeroacademy and, in turn, add flight training to the range of aeronautical training currently available at Cambridge Airport.”

The new partnership enables Pilot Training College to establish a noteworthy presence in the UK in addition to its existing Training Centres in Ireland at Waterford and Dublin, and in Florida, USA.

PTC trains up to 300 pilots per year and has contracts with leading airlines from around the world such as Flybe, Nasair, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Air Astana.

Initially PTC will be basing a new Boeing 737 simulator, an FNPTII procedures trainer and a fleet of Piper Seminole aircraft at Cambridge Airport.

Capt. Mike Edgeworth, Executive Chairman and CEO, Pilot Training College, said, “We are delighted to be entering a partnership with Cambridge Airport to establish a Flight Training Centre in the United Kingdom providing high quality ab-initio training to (F)ATPL level. This is an important step in establishing a firm foothold and presence in our largest market in Europe. In the course of our negotiations we have established a very positive and synergistic working relationship with the personnel at Marshalls in Cambridge which I am confident will lead to significant growth and development of our joint objectives at the airport. I look forward with enthusiasm to further developing our operations in tandem with Cambridge.”

The partnership also marks the return of professional flight training to Cambridge, which has a proud heritage as the cradle of the RAF’s ab-initio Flying Instructor scheme, which was universally adopted by the RAF in 1941 and continues in use today. The airport’s owner, Marshall, also trained 20,000 pilots during the Second World War from Cambridge and other satellites, of which 700 were trained prior to The Battle of Britain.

Today, Cambridge is a fully fledged commercial airport with a 24/7 capability, holding a Public Use License and maintaining CAA Category 7 Fire & Air Traffic Control status. It has full navigational aids, communications and radar approach coverage of 30 nm. It has invested in a new GPS approach to complement the existing ILS system. With a 1965m/6447ft runway it accepts intercontinental business jets and aircraft up to Boeing 757 or Airbus 320 size.

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