Antares Aviation Hub, located at an airport in Brazil’s Central West region, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Escola Superior do Ar (University of the Air) that will help develop aviation talent. The agreement, signed on Tuesday at the LABACE 2023 show in São Paulo, will make Antares “the “first distance learning pole of the Central West,” according to Antares director Romeu da Silva Neiva Junior and Francisco Lyra, CEO of C Fly Aviation and one of the founders of Escola Superior do Ar.
Lyra's track record includes developing the São Paulo-area business aviation airport Caterina Executive. His Lyra goal for the new project is to train people to help meet the projected growth of aviation. “Human resource departments are overwhelmed with people who arrive needing extensive additional training before they can start working,” he said.
The idea behind the University of the Air is to train aviation professionals, not just pilots. “Aviation is a pyramid, with the pilot at the tip,” Lyra explained, “but all the other professionals are needed for pilots to fly.” Formal in-person courses will be matched to on-site training at aviation companies.
The Antares Aviation Hub, which is located in Aparecida de Goiania, 130 miles (210 km) from the country’s geographic center and capital, Brasilia, is claimed to be “at the center of everything” as the “first general aviation pole of the Central West.” The development’s runway is 6,500 feet long (1,980 meters) long with a pavement classification number (PCN) of 30, and it sits on a 500-acre site. There is room to more than double the initial planned 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m) of ramp space, and the PCN can be increased to 43. Space is also reserved for a heliport.
The airport aims to serve not only business aviation, but e-commerce and warehousing, cargo transport, maintenance, repair and overhaul, and even aircraft manufacturing, as well as other aviation uses.
Antares is not the only location where the University of the Air has plans, and it has leased a five-story building near Guarulhos Airport, Brazil’s busiest international hub for further expansion.