They sold masks at no profit but Facebook shut them down. Made with funding from NZ On Air.
The New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy received more than $200,000 as part of the Government's Covid-19 wage subsidy initiative.
Chief executive Phillip Bedford said while some operations had continued that was because the school hadn't been able to carry out flight training.
"We provide theory training, simulator training, andflight training, and invoices are sent out at the end of each month for the product that each student receives.
"We've been able to do that for lectures and simulator training, but not for actual flight training."
Work and Income says the school received $208,058.40 for 30 employees.
Bedford said the New Zealand system for international education was predicated on students paying their fees into a public trust bank account.
"Some revenue has been lost because we haven't been able to fly our planes, but in terms of future income, we just need to be able to provide that product to the students to draw down on those fees," he said.
"Income has just been pushed back a bit, and it isn't as if we've lost our customers or anything like that."
Bedford said the academy had remained "interestingly busy" throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and he had been conducting advocacy work with Aviation New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to find a solution to resume actual flight training.
he NZICPA is advocating to be able to resume actual flight training. Photo / Bevan Conley
"The people we're talking about, the students, have been in a lockdown bubble together since the very start of level 4."
"At present, we're trying to present a case that we've taken Covid-19 very seriously, and we want to move the accommodation bubble to the airport in an attempt to get flying training back up and running again."
The potential decrease in demand for commercial pilots post Covid-19 was something Bedford said was "definitely possible in the short term".
"Airlines will obviously be smaller for an extended period of time because of the reduction of air travel."
"In terms of the pilot academy, we remain in good stead because we offer New Zealand students what is, in theory, an eight-year tenure.
"Our best New Zealand graduates can be employed with us with the flight instructor strand, which is a programme of a further six years after their initial two-year training period.
