Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher confirmed the Waitaki District Council "about a month ago" signed a memorandum of understanding with New Zealand Airline Academy Ltd to establish a flight school for foreign students at the council-owned airport.
He said the council and the company had been in talks since December, but the company was now waiting for the final sign-off for New Zealand Qualifications Authority accreditation before a "full" public announcement was made.
"Basically, you’ve got a whole lot of new markets opening in Asia, in particular, where they are really trying to boost their flight services and the expectation is that thousands of pilots will be needed in the next decade — and so this is part of meeting that demand," Mr Kircher said.
The school planned to offer 10-month courses to an initial intake of 30 international flight students, paying $65,000 each, which would help to fill a global pilots shortage. Directors of the company were contacted yesterday but declined to comment at this early stage.
Council chief executive Fergus Power also declined to speak in detail about the plans yesterday.
"It’s just a little early to be talking about it," Mr Power said.
"In fact, we’re really trying not to talk about it at the moment because it is at a very, very sensitive stage. If it is possible to show some kind of restraint, that would be great."
He expected there would be "an awful lot to talk about" later this month. The Omarama Gazette reported on Thursday Mr Kircher spoke about the plans at an Ahuriri Community Board meeting. Mr Kircher said he responded to a question at the public meeting when "basically they knew almost as much detail as what I knew about it".
The 30 students could grow to be "many more", he said.
The council had "facilitated" accommodation for the students at an Oamaru property.
The Otago Daily Times understands the recently vacated former rest-home, Rendell on Reed, will be used to house the students. North Otago Aero Club captain Sven Thelning said that, because of the airport’s assets, he believed "it was really only a matter of time before a big operator like that came in".
"We’ve got the best airport for a town of our size in the country," he said.
There were three large runways, and one of them was sealed and lighted. The airport was an hour from Christchurch or Queenstown, and less than an hour from Dunedin. There was also varied topography in the area — mountains, the coast, and rivers.
"That’s all fantastic navigational learning," Mr Thelning said.
He called the prospect exciting and said the club’s Waitaki Flight School would not compete for the same students.
