JEDDAH: A new batch of young female and male pilots are taking to the skies after receiving their pilot licenses from the Oxford Saudia Flight Academy on Sunday.
Pilots from the academy’s first graduating class will now receive a three-year contract where they will develop their skills and reach up to 750 hours annual flying hours.
The academy was established in 2018 near King Fahd International Airport in Dammam at the Saudi National Center of Aviation.
As the eighth branch of the Oxford pilot school, it aims to bring the best aviation trainers to the Kingdom.
The Saudi National Center of Aviation aims to have a pilot school, a maintenance training center, and a simulator training center for commercial airlines.
The training program at the school is approved under the GACAR 141 pilot school certification and caters to students in the GCC region.
Pilots must complete the three years of training before getting their wings.
The first year includes learning the basics and passing the flight acceptance test.
In the second year, students learn the practical dynamics of flying and are provided with three licenses at the end of their performance.
They earn the private pilot license, the instrument use license, and the commercial pilot license, which enables them to train on the Airbus 320 in their final year.
Every year, 300 students are enrolled in the training, with female students making up 10 percent of the classes.
The academy is expected to open two more branches at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and at Princess Nourah University in Riyadh.
The academy has agreements with five Chinese airlines and an Ethiopian airline for training its their students.
It has also signed a contract to purchase 60 European Diamond aircraft, as well as four flight simulators dedicated to the Diamond. It will manufacture one full-motion and one fixed-motion Airbus 320 simulator, costing SR50 million ($13.3 million).
