welcome
Dear friends of
W
elcome to the May issue of OUTthere.
The prospect of operating in any industry
without vital skilled labour is nothing short of
daunting, but as we've found at Rex, it pays to
be proactive. The key is to use initiative and to invest in people.
Faced with a worldwide shortage of pilots in 2007–08,
the company started a joint-venture training academy with
Mangalore Airport in Victoria. By April 2008, Rex had acquired
100 per cent of the academy to develop the Australian Airline
Pilot Academy (AAPA) in Wagga Wagga, NSW.
The state-of-the-art campus boasts premier training
facilities, which suitably impressed recent visitors Airservices
Australia CEO Margaret Staib and Airservices management.
Further initiative was taken by the Rex Flight Operations
department through the development of the Pilot In
Command Under Supervision Program (PICUSP).
PICUSP assists first officers to meet the prerequisites for
selection for Command upgrade training. Late last year, the
initial four first officers completed the program, achieving
Command positions on the Rex Group's Saab 340 fleet.
Interestingly, these four are also AAPA graduates.
We hope that through our initiative and investment
in people we will continue to develop such training and
professional development opportunities so the Rex Group
will be self-sufficient in supplying pilots and first officers
of the highest standard. Now, that's a happy thought.
Until next time, from all 1,000 of us at Rex, Air Link,
Pel-Air and AAPA, we invite you to sit back, relax and let
us do the flying.
