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ICAO certifies Ethiopian Aviation Academy as regional training center of excellence

Xinhua, May 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has certified the Ethiopian Aviation Academy as the ICAO Regional Training Center of Excellence, the Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the Ethiopian Aviation Academy has been recognized as ICAO Regional Training Center of Excellence last week at the ICAO's Global Aviation Training and TRAINAIR PLUS symposium in Seoul, Korea.

The academy has attained the recognition following a rigorous assessment of the training organization, training & procedures manuals, facilities, training processes, qualification of staff and quality system, noted the statement.

The recognition allows Ethiopia to develop and host ICAO training packages (ITPs) in addition to ICAO recognized standardized training packages (STPs) of its own, said the statement.

Moreover, besides improving the quality of training, by making it more of material dependent than instructor dependent, the ITPs and STPs can also be exchanged with all ICAO TRAINAIR PLUS members and generate revenue, it added.

Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of the Ethiopian Airlines, said the recognition is the result of the continuous heavy investment Ethiopian is making on human resource development, a critical pillar of its Vision 2025 strategy.

Ethiopia has invested more than 100 million U.S. dollars to expand both the scope of the training and the in-take capacity of the academy, said the CEO.

The academy now admits over 1,500 students per year to train pilots, aircraft technicians, cabin crew, marketing and finance personnel, customer service agents as well as aviation leaders, he added.

"Going forward, we plan to increase this in-take capacity to 4,000 by 2025, so as to cater for the growing training need in the continent," noted Tewolde.

Ethiopian Aviation Academy has recently been awarded "Airline Service Provider of the Year" award by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) for its excellence in service delivery, innovation and competitiveness in best service providers to the African aviation industry, recalled the statement.

The academy is also a full member of ICAO TRAINAIR PLUS since May 20, 2015, it said.

Ethiopian Airlines is the fastest growing airline in Africa, and in its seven decades of operations, it has become one of the continent's leading carriers, unrivalled in efficiency and operational success. Endit