Thomas flying high with Aer Lingus

Thomas flying high with Aer Lingus

6 January 2016

DOWNPATRICK’S Thomas Turley is one of 12 new recruits to the 2016 Aer Lingus Cadet Pilot Training Programme. 

This year’s campaign attracted a huge response with over 2,800 applications for the 12 places available. Since the programme was re-introduced in 2011, almost 60 cadets have been chosen of which 15 per cent have been female. 

Thomas and the other recruits will begin a 14-month training course during January with FTEJerez, a leading flight training organisation, based in Jerez, Spain.

The training includes five months of ground school followed by initial flight training on single and multi-engine aircraft and aircraft simulators. 

Thomas and his fellow cadets will then return to Dublin to carry out the remainder their training. 

Following successful completion, the cadets will receive their wings and commence flying the airline’s fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft.