First Vietnamese commercial pilots graduated in Australia hinh anh 1Vietnam Airlines pilots (Photo: VNA)
Sydney (VNA) – The Australian Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA) on May 12 held a graduation ceremony for 30 international commercial pilots, including seven from Viet Flight Training (VFT) – a company of national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines.

Addressing the event, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Julia Bishop said the relations between Australia and Vietnam have grown more extensively and intensively in various fields, especially in trade and education-training.

The graduates at AAPA were among 22,000 Vietnamese students to pursue learning at the host’s education-training facilities, she said, noting that this year, over 300 Australian students are studying in Vietnam within the framework of the New Colombo Plan – one of the most important education programmes of the Australian government.

She congratulated Vietnamese pilots for completing the course and affirmed Australia’s pilot training programme for Vietnam is of international standards.

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Airlines Pham Xuan Duc said the graduation ceremony is significant to the Vietnamese aviation industry and the VFT in particular and marks an important milestone in the two countries’ cooperation in training pilots.

He hoped the pilots will help Vietnam Airlines promote its integration into the global market, adding that the carrier needs 1,000 pilots by 2020.

AAPA is one of the world's best pilot academies with state-of-the-art training aircraft and infrastructure. It is one of the global partners of the Boeing Flight Training Services in flight training.

The training at AAPA is the result of the first commercial contract between AAPA and VFT, which was signed in December 2015.

The seven graduate pilots were among the first 15 VFT students to study at AAPA.

The VFT plans to send 14 more to AAPA this year.-VNA

VNA