Gloucestershire Airport-based Skyborne Airline Academy has unveiled a comprehensive benefits package to ease the financial barriers for prospective airline pilots in the UK and enhance their education.

The firm has announced that all trainees on Skyborne's UK CAA Integrated ATPL programme will be enrolled onto the BSc (Hons) degree from the University of West London (UWL) at no extra cost.

In addition, the first 100 successful applicants to commence training between 1st May and 30th September 2022 will benefit from £10,000 off the cost of their training, thanks to a new £1million Skyborne Bursary fund, created by the Skyborne Group.

Tom Misner, chairman at Skyborne, said: "As we're seeing the aviation industry thrive post-Covid, I wanted our company to do its bit and help pilots begin their career in aviation. With the Skyborne Bursary not only will we be assisting 100 cadets with their training costs, we'll also be providing the industry with highly skilled individuals to ease the current global pilot shortage."

CEO Lee Woodward said: "At Skyborne, we're passionate about levelling the playing field and opening up pilot training for a more diverse group of applicants.

"This prestigious BSc (Hons) degree from UWL not only provides our graduates with a competitive advantage in the job market; it also means for the first time, Skyborne cadets can apply for undergraduate tuition fee and maintenance loans - financial support that has long been unfairly denied to pilot trainees. We're incredibly proud to be the first ATO in the UK to present this unique offer."

The initial 100 cadets who enrol on the full Skyborne/UWL BSc (Hons) programme could be entitled to up to £22,200 in tuition fee loans and a further £19,412 in maintenance loans to support their living costs over two years.

With the addition of the £10,000 Skyborne Bursary to support their final course payment, this could mean an estimated £50k of funding may be available of the £99,500 programme, to support the course fees and living costs. Trainees who do not want to partake in the degree programme will still be eligible for the £10,000 Skyborne Bursary.

Mr Woodward added: "It is feasible that a trainee might only be required to find £49,000 of private funding to commence training. Whilst we recognise that this is still a considerable sum of money, it is a lot more attainable than the headline price of £99,500."

The UK CAA Integrated ATPL programme will include a full BSc (Hons) degree, Skyborne Performance Protection, accommodation for training undertaken in the UK and US, uniform, all equipment including an iPad, ground school tuition including all UK CAA exam fees, flight time including all landing/approaching fees and fuel, flights and transport to Skyborne's Vero Beach facility as well as Skills Continuation Training for graduates post course completion.