Brindabella Airlines

Brindabella Airlines has announced the staged closure of its flight training business, Brindabella Flight Training, based at Canberra Airport.

Brindabella Flight Training has been training commercial and private pilots at Canberra Airport since 2000 when Jeff Boyd and Lara Corry-Boyd acquired the business from a previous operator. At that time, there were at least six flying schools at Canberra Airport.

Brindabella Airlines CEO, Jeff Boyd said, in recent years the business has become less and less commercially viable at Canberra Airport and there is no alternative airfield in Canberra to which we can move. Once we close this business, there will be no flight training in the ACT.

The Brindabella Airlines group has a real commitment to the aviation industry and encouraging and training pilots. However the commercial and operational realities are making it harder and harder at Canberra Airport to keep the business viable.

This is a very sad day for Brindabella and for Canberra Mr Boyd said. It is a reflection of a larger problem affecting the aviation industry, which is a failure at the government and policy level to have any concern for the industry in light of very negative changes over the past 15 years.

Aviation is typically a high cost, low margin business and flying schools and airlines are finding it increasingly difficult to survive the monumental price rises at privately owned airports, the increased burdens of security, and the enormous, uncompetitive charges being pushed onto us by regulatory agencies. The list goes on.

Australia should be the flying training capital of the world given its strong safety record, its good weather and typically flat terrain. But flying training won't be happening in this capital Mr Boyd said.

IATA estimates a need for more than 200,000 new pilots worldwide in the next 8 years and Australia should have a large slice of that training market, but all the current settings are against it Mr Boyd said.

Brindabella Flight Training will close at the end of April to the majority of its students with a small number of instructors kept on to the end of September to finalise training for particular clients.