As Hong Kong rebuilds itself as an aviation hub, to gear up for an anticipated global recovery in air travel, PolyU and Cathay Pacific has signed a three-year agreement on 5 September 2022 to collaborate on a new integrated course for Cathay Pacific’s Cadet Pilot training programme that will cultivate local aviation industry talent and develop Hong Kong as a hub for aviation training. Overall, the programme targets to train more than 1,000 cadet pilots by 2025.

In his opening speech, Secretary for Transport and Logistics of the HKSAR Mr Lam Sai-hung said the collaboration marked a milestone in Hong Kong's aviation industry. The Cadet Pilot training programme would not only groom more pilots for Hong Kong, but it also marked the first time that aviation theory courses would be taught by a local institution, writing a new chapter in Hong Kong's aviation history and enriching the variety of aviation professional training in the city.

The new 55-60 week integrated course comprises three stages: theory, simulator training and flight training. Under the newly signed agreement, PolyU will provide a 150-working-day Theoretical Ground Training course that includes a minimum of 750 hours of instruction and examination in areas including principles of flight, meteorology, human performance, general navigation, instrumentation, radio navigation, air law and more. Successful candidates will then commence flight training overseas before returning to Cathay City for multi-crew simulator training.

The first batch of 24 candidates have already started the integrated course at PolyU in March and are scheduled to commence flight training in October after they have completed the ground theory portion of the programme. In parallel with the new integrated course, Cathay Pacific is also conducting cadet pilot training courses based upon the original programme module in Adelaide.

Enrolment for the Cathay Pacific Cadet Pilot programme is open. For details, please click here.