An Irish airline is offering to sponsor the training of pilots, in a deal worth more than £200,000 a year, if Gormanston military camp in Co Meath is turned into an aviation centre.
According to CityJet's chief executive, Mr Pat Byrne, there is no training school for commercial pilots in Ireland and the industry - which is expanding rapidly could soon face shortages of properly qualified personnel. He said CityJet needs eight pilots per year. If an aviation centre was established at Gormanston, the company would be prepared to part-sponsor pilots and guarantee them jobs afterwards. Mr Byrne said training a pilot can take 18 months and costs around £60,000. CityJet would be prepared to meet approximately half these costs.
Mr Byrne is also involved with one of two consortiums which are talking to the Department of Public Enterprise about the possibility of establishing an aviation centre at Gormanston. In 1996, an enterprise development taskforce made a series of recommendations, one of which was to establish a flying school at Gormanston. It was felt the location would be suitable because of its proximity to Dublin and Dublin Airport which has flight simulation equipment.
At present the Air Corps uses Gormanston for landing and storing part of its fleet of Cessna aircraft. A spokesman for the Department of Defence said a review of the Defence Forces, carried out three years ago, had recommended that the Air Corps fleet be kept solely at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Co Dublin.
He said the Department had no objection in principle to Gormanston being used as an aviation centre.
Mr Byrne hopes to go ahead with the project which would incorporate a flying school and facilities for landing and storing private aircraft as well as the school.
Mr Byrne said by sponsoring a number of pilots and guaranteeing them jobs, Cityjet would be guaranteed an input into choosing pilots. However, he said even if his consortium's proposals for an aviation centre were not accepted, he would still be interested in sponsoring pilot training.
