Specialists in civil aviation haven’t been trained in Moldova for about 20 years. The costs for training a pilot abroad amount to €70,000. The opening of an aviation school in Moldova is a real project that can be implemented next year already, but the Government’s support and investments of about €340,000 are needed for the purpose
Contacted by IPN for a comment, the manager of the state-run company “Moldaeroservice” Viorel Catană said an aeronautic training center worked at the Chisinau International Airport in the Soviet time. This trained both technicians and navigation specialists and had by 80-100 specialists annually. But it stopped work long ago. It owned a Diamond 42 plane and a stimulator that were transferred by the Public Property Agency to “Moldaeroservice”.
Viorel Catană said a feasibility study was carried out this April to see the prospects of creating an aviation school. The plane and stimulator are nonfunctional as they haven’t been used for many years. They need to be renovated and could be later used in training. There were prepared functional helicopter and diesel replicas, placards, teaching aids. Theory could be taught in Chisinau as there is an unused building on the airport’s territory. Practice could be taught at the Bălți-Leadoveni airport that is free now, without any regular flights and passengers.
The investments were estimated at about €340,000. Besides the repair of the plane and simulator, this sum will also be used to outfit the building for theoretical lessons and to renovate the airshed that was built 40 years ago and can shelter the Diamond plane.
An aviation school could train specialists for the national civil aviation, plane and helicopter pilots and technicians and could attract students from outside the country as such studies in the countries of the region are expensive.
Viorel Catană said there are now two private schools that train private pilots for small planes, of the PPL category, in Moldova. A national aviation school run with state support would train specialists of the ATPL and CPL categories, who would fly Boeing, Airbus aircraft and commercial helicopters.
