“They [the academy] have a good process going with Immigration New Zealand, and that was quite slow for a while for international aviation schools around the country.
“It’s not the blockage in the system that it was.”
Councillor Rob Vinsen says there is a lot of public "misinformation" about the academy. Photo / NZME
The latest academy recruitment update was presented behind closed doors to the council’s council-controlled organisation and economic development committee.
Speaking at the committee meeting before the public was excluded, councillor Rob Vinsen said there was a lot of interest in the academy “and a lot of misinformation, unfortunately”.
He said he was disappointed there were only a few lines of publicly available updates in van Leuven’s latest Holdings report.
“The public deserves more than what is in this report,” he said.
Van Leuven told Vinsen there was commercial sensitivity around a lot of current academy operations.
“We will work with them to make sure that, at the next meeting, there is a public report with as much information in it as it can,” she said.
Speaking to the Chronicle, Van Leuven said overall Holdings had a net deficit of $2.218 million for 2023/24 but that included the purchase of 10 planes for $2.8m.
She said a net surplus of $12,000 was budgeted for 2024/25.
“That’s quite a big turnaround and that’s because the academy will start to wash its face [become profitable] from early 2025.”
The council signed off a $10.3m package last year to enable the academy to deliver the IndiGo contract, Van Leuven said.
That was used to purchase and maintain aircraft and a working capital facility - a loan to ensure the normal running of the academy’s operations - was also part of it.
“Once they break even and start turning a profit, the expectation is they would start repaying that facility.”
She said the academy would be paying interest on that loan.
Carolyn van Leuven says forecasts for cadet arrivals are now being met.
Earlier this year, a shutdown of a Continental diesel engine in one of the academy’s planes led to all nine aircraft with that engine being grounded.
Van Leuven said three had returned to service and there was a plan through a quality programme for the others to follow suit.
Her report said accommodation site Hato Hōhepa - formerly Nazareth Rest Home - was being used by students again.
Holdings also owns the former Collegiate Motor Inn, which is used for cadet accommodation.
Councillor Ross Fallen said based on weekly reports councillors received, the maximum number of students for both sites was not likely to be reached for “quite some time”.
Van Leuven told the committee opportunities for other organisations to use parts of the sites temporarily had been explored, with two turning it down.
“One of the difficulties is in relation to NZICPA’s pastoral obligations, to meet its obligations with NZQA [NZ Qualifications Authority]” she said.
“It’s not like we can just accommodate anybody else at the same property. There needs to be quite strict rules in place.”
She told the Chronicle Whanganuiratepayers had put a lot into the academy on the basis it was bringing people and broader economic benefits to the district.
“They deserve to be confident that we’re keeping a close eye on things and making sure their investment is well protected.”
Van Leuven said that had been extended and there was a staged approach to the transition, with some assets already being transferred back to the council.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia 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 the Whanganui District Council.
