Alitalia to train 40 new cadet pilots

Alitalia is to employ 40 new cadet pilots to help to operate the airline’s future flying programme.

The new recruits – aged between 18 and 25 – will join 24 trainees selected from 500 applications in 2014 which also marked the return of the Alitalia Flight School in Italy to bolster the airline’s growing flight-deck talent pool. 

Successful applicants will embark on a two-year course to acquire a multi-crew pilot licence and fly for Alitalia’s regional subsidiary CityLiner in a fleet of 20 Embraer aircraft.  Alitalia has entered into an agreement with UniCredit to offer cadets a bespoke loan scheme.

The 24 month training programme will be conducted at the Etihad Airways Flight College in the UAE city of Al Ain and at the Alitalia Flight Training Academy at Rome Fiumicino.  The course includes classroom tuitions, flight simulator sessions and aircraft flight lessons.

The first part of the course is dedicated to theoretical and practical classwork, followed by the first training test flights at the Etihad Flight College in Al Ain, an hour’s drive from Abu Dhabi. The second part of the course will be held at the Alitalia Training Academy at Rome Fiumicino, which is equipped with seven flight simulators, and managed by a dedicated team of the airline’s pilot instructors.

Captain Giuseppe Borgna, head of Cadet Pilot Program, is in charge of this project.

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