The academy inked a new deal with IndiGo last year. Photo / Bevan Conley
The New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy in Whanganui will soon have 10 more second-hand planes at its disposal, coming with a price tag of $2.78 million.
According to a report from Whanganui District Council Holdings chairwoman Carolyn van Leuven, the purchase followed the academy’s decision not to proceed with the purchase of Air Hawke’s Bay, which would have included additional aircraft.
The academy (NZICPA) comes under the umbrella of Holdings, a council-controlled organisation.
The Chronicle first reported on the possible purchase of Air Hawke’s Bay in November 2022, but a week later both parties “decided not to proceed with the sale”.
A second pursuit of Air Hawke’s Bay ended in December 2023.
The decision not to go ahead was made by the NZICPA board, van Leuven said.
“We had several conversations with them about the proposed Air Hawke’s Bay investment and they looked pretty carefully at what the pros and cons would be,” she said.
“It was something they were keen to do but, in the end, the analysis they did showed the investment didn’t stack up.”
NZICPA has a deal with Indian airline IndiGo to train cadets up to December 2026.
“The academy needs planes to train the students and, on current projections, they will take it through to about October without needing any additional aircraft,” she said.
“NZICPA already has an envelope of funding [for the planes] that the council approved when it approved the IndiGo deal.
“We couldn’t be bringing the students to Whanganui without those aircraft.”
The planes are owned by Holdings and leased to the academy.
Academy chief executive Gerard Glanville said seven were already on-site and the new arrivals were Cessnas and Diamonds - all bought in New Zealand.
“We have changed the configuration of the type of training to meet the demands of the IndiGo programme,” he said.
“It‘s about doing more with the resources you’ve got.
“If you consider the fact we are largely a fixed overhead business with running costs relating to training, the more we can utilise the overheads, the more efficient we are.”
Van Leuven said Holdings was very conscious about giving council advice on what it should be investing in because “at the end of the day, it’s all ratepayer money”.
“One of the healthy things happening is really good, robust discussions between Holdings, the ICPA and council about whether investments are a good use of ratepayer funding.
“Obviously, things haven’t panned out at ICPA as they had hoped over the last few years.”
She said the biggest reason for that was Covid-19, as well as delays in visa processing for students.
The academy was down to 19 pilot cadets when the country’s borders were closed during the pandemic.
Glanville has previously said ”in raw terms” once student numbers passed 95 to 100, the academy would be back to a profit position.
There are currently 64 students, including non-IndiGo cadets and domestic diploma students.
“We are anticipating still that by the end of the year, we’ll have exactly the number of students we’re meant to have,” Glanville said.
“Everybody obviously wants things to happen a lot quicker, but we’re regulated at the pace at which we can work.
Van Leuven said the NZICPA’s board had assured Holdings it was confident demand was “strong and growing”.
“It’s their business to understand that market, and we are definitely keeping a close eye on things.
“[The planes are] a necessary investment for the pilot academy to progress the commercial arrangement with IndiGo that council signed off on and agreed to on behalf of ratepayers.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multi-media journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.