Grounded: 'Plan B' needed for NZICPA students due in Whanganui

The New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy is awaiting about 80 students from India. Photo / File

The wait continues for 80 prospective pilot students who are due in Whanganui for flight training but are unable to travel from India due to Covid-19.

The cadets are from Indian airline IndiGo and are enrolled at the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy (NZICPA), which is now looking for a "Plan B".

They have largely finished the online training delivered to them by the Whanganui District Council-owned academy, board chairman David Rae said, and now need to do their hours in the air.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand government has suspended travel to and from India, because Covid is so rife there.

The travel ban started on April 11. It is expected to end on April 28 but could be extended.

Rae is hoping to find a "Plan B" that will get the IndiGo cadets into New Zealand.

"We and the whole industry are still in discussions with the Government about trying to find exemptions to allow foreign students into the country on a controlled basis."

Students could be allowed in for 12-18 months in a controlled way with minimal risk, he said.

David Rae is the chairman of the board that runs the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy in Whanganui. Photo / supplied

Whanganui MP Steph Lewis said she had been championing the cause of getting the students to Whanganui but there was a process to go through, she said, and it would be unfair and breed uncertainty if individual schools could get exemptions.

"If you want an exemption you have to come as an industry. That's what was done for post-graduate students and for RSE workers."

Lewis has been talking to Rachel Boyack, the MP for Nelson, where there is another flight school, and to the chief executive of Aviation New Zealand, John Nicholson.

"We are working on putting together an industry-wide exemption. It's a very complex issue because it's across a number of responsibilities - immigration, education, transport," she said.

Nothing has officially been put before the ministers yet, and it's too early to say what the outcome will be.

The Chronicle has also put questions about the flight students to Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi.

The academy's 81 current students will finish their studies progressively during June and July, Rae said.

In December last year it made three people redundant, due to falling numbers of students.

"We are still looking at what we need to do at the flight school and we are in discussions with [Whanganui District Council] Holdings and council about what the future is going to look like."

He was reluctant to say when hard decisions would have to be made.

"I would rather not give a specific date, partly because that can be quite unsettling for staff. We need to keep people motivated," he said.