Airways International Graduates Saudi Arabia ATC Students

The eighth cohort of General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) students from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has graduated from air traffic control (ATC) training with Airways International, 11 years after the first group to arrive in New Zealand completed their training.

GACA and Airways celebrated this milestone as 34 students attended their graduation ceremony in Palmerston North following two years of study in New Zealand. Almost 200 students from Saudi Arabia have completed ATC training with Airways since the first cohort landed in New Zealand in 2009.

The graduates included four female students – the first Saudi Arabian females to train as air traffic controllers outside their own country. Saudi Air Navigation Services (SANS) will employ the graduates on their return to Saudi Arabia and are prioritising hiring women in the ATC profession, with the aim to extend female employment and empowerment. The organisation is offering theoretical and practical ATC training to 80 women per year to prepare them for work in the ATC sector – the first cohort of female ATCs started work in Jeddah in March 2019.

The graduation marks the students’ successful completion of a two-year scholarship provided by the Ministry of Education and GACA in Saudi Arabia. The students spent the first 12 months studying English at Kaplan International College, Auckland University of Technology and the Worldwide School of English, then completed a 12-month ATC training programme with Airways at its Palmerston North training centre.

Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to New Zealand attended the graduation ceremony.

What challenges are prospective professional pilots facing in paying for the ever-increasing cost of flight training? For more on this topic, read  Pay to Fly.