Since Malta-based company Academy 147 started in 2014 as a post-MBA idea of managing director Andy Trinchero, it has grown into a company with 25 employees around the world delivering more than 40 maintenance type-rating courses to the business aviation sector every year. This year, Academy 147 has delivered 42 courses so far.
Visiting MEBAA 2018, Trinchero told AIN that the company had just before the show delivered a course in Dubai, training engineers on the Gulfstream G150 at a global company that has a base in the UAE. “We have a few customers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” he noted, “And we did around ten courses in Dubai alone last year, including a Bombardier Global course.”
“It’s been a record year for us” as Academy 147 responds to a global MRO skills shortage, said Trinchero. “The Middle East is one of our core markets and we are seeing an increasing appetite for maintenance training throughout the region. We are able to provide training to fulfill a wide range of regulatory and personnel training requirements, from EASA, GCAA, FAA, and other bodies.”
Trinchero himself worked for a maintenance provider before founding Academy 147, and he said the experience of working in the industry showed him there was a real need. Now, he said, “We have training [instructors] throughout the region who can travel to client sites to provide on-location maintenance training across multiple aircraft platforms.”
The company has also added a location in Las Vegas, which joins Los Angeles, Orlando, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Malta. So now, said Trinchero, “We are able to provide a rapid response to training requirements around the globe.”
Trinchero said the past four years had been “extremely hard work” building the company from scratch, but growth continues and he is looking for more customers and clients with mechanics who need type-rating courses. “So we’ve gone pretty quickly, and the Middle East will remain a core market for us,” he concluded.