British Airways selects Gloucestershire-based Skyborne for its Speedbird Pilot Academy

Published by

Peter Davison

British Airways has announced Gloucestershire-based Skyborne as the official UK partner for its first Speedbird Pilot Academy

British Airways has announced Gloucestershire-based Skyborne as the official UK partner for its first Speedbird Pilot Academy.

Applications are now open for the multi-million-pound training initiative which offers a fully funded path to the flight deck with British Airways, offering talented candidates the opportunity to begin a rewarding career with the airline, regardless of their background.

Following a joint selection process, students will embark upon Skyborne’s UK CAA Integrated ATPL programme with £99,500 of tuition costs covered in full.

Lee Woodward, CEO of Skyborne – which is based at Gloucestershire Airport, Cheltenham – said: “As we cement our relationship with British Airways, Skyborne leads as the most trusted airline academy in the industry. Marking our first UK partnership with the UK’s largest international airline is testament to the solid track record of our team and the core values we jointly hold.

“From the very start, Skyborne has been committed to removing the barriers to entry to pilot training and widening the talent pool.

"As a graduate of a British Airways sponsored programme, I know first-hand the life-changing impact such initiatives have and I applaud BA for its industry-leading Speedbird Pilot Academy.”

Captain Ian Pringle, Head of Flight Training, British Airways, says: “By removing initial training costs, we’re making a flying career truly accessible so we can recruit the best and the brightest candidates. We trust in Skyborne to offer our trainees world-class facilities, innovative teaching methods and a wealth of airline experience, building a crucial foundation for their future.”

A significant majority of places for the 2023 Speedbird Pilot Academy intake will be available via Skyborne, with British Airways committed to increasing take-up from under-represented groups in aviation including people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and women.

Carla Booth, Group Head of Airline Business, Skyborne, adds: “This initiative marks the first British Airways sponsored programme since the mid-1990s, giving hope to diverse communities that have long found the cost of pilot training prohibitive. Together we hope to play a pivotal role in driving change, securing the pilot pipeline and showing young people from all walks of life how exciting an airline career can be.”

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Applicants must be aged between 18 and 55, with six GCSEs at grade A-C or 5-9, including Maths, English and one of the Sciences.

The Speedbird Pilot Academy is just one route to a career with British Airways. In July 2023, Skyborne was announced as a partner for the airline’s 2023/2024 whitetail pilot recruitment drive, giving current trainees and graduates the opportunity to secure a conditional offer upon finishing their flight training.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.