Pegasus Flight Training spreads it wings as low-cost carriers grow

“Low-cost carriers have experienced exponential growth in Turkey over the last few years,” said Captain Cahit Tasbas, general manager and CEO of Pegasus Flight Training Academy.

“A lot of people don’t realise just how big Turkey actually is – it can take two hours just to fly from Istanbul to the eastern party of the country. And, as ticket prices have come down, interest in flying has gone up.

“All this has meant an increase in the amount of flying training that Pegasus Airlines needs to complete, plus we are seeing more training opportunities from other airlines too.”

E stablished in 1989 as a joint venture between Aer Lingus, Silkar Yatirim and Net Holding, with its head office in Istanbul, Pegasus now employs 177 captains and 180 first officers.

Since its first commercial flight in May 1990, it has grown from having a fleet of two aircraft to 32, including 22 of the very latest new generation Boeing 737-800s, two Boeing 737-400s and one Boeing 737-500. 

It plans to expand this to 40 aircraft by the end of 2011 and 60 by the end of 2015. By the end of 2011, with the addition of the new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the average age of Pegasus’s Boeing 737-800 fleet will be 2.59 years.

The airline now flies to more than 100 destinations in 17 countries. In addition, it provides wet leasing services to other airlines when they need extra capacity besides their charter operations.

In 1993 control of the company was transferred to the Turkish bank Yapi Kredi and, in 2005, ESAS Holding took over Pegasus.

The new owner adopted a dynamic approach and what it called “a self-vitalisation process” was initiated. As a result, Pegasus Airlines started to schedule flights on domestic routes from November 2005 and on international routes from late December of the same year.

“At that time only Turkish Airlines was offering scheduled flights in the country and ticket prices were very high. We brought prices down dramatically and the rest is history,” said Captain Tasbas.

Pegasus has provided either basic or refresher training for pilots flying for its fleet since 1994, but a move to a new training centre near Ataturk Airport, Istanbul, in January this year, and a joint venture with Sim-Industries of the Netherlands, reflects the rise in training’s importance.

The new centre currently has one Sim-Industries Boeing 737-800W level-D flight simulator and more purchases are planned.

“During the first four months since the opening of the simulator, 95 per cent of the training has been for our own crew,” said Captain Tasbas.

“In other words, there hasn’t been a lot of opportunity to provide training for other companies due to our rapid growth, combined with the purchase of two new Boeing 737-NG aircraft that our sister company IZAIR has just started operating.

“However, we are providing training to various foreign companies. In the second half of this year our goal is to provide more training to external companies, both foreign and domestic – once we meet our own training demands. 

“The addition of a second or even a third simulator in 2012 will allow us to open up our training opportunities to even more companies.”

Captain Tasbas is an ex NATO pilot who flew AWACS in Bosnia and in the Gulf War. He entered Turkish civil aviation in 1999, joining Pegasus Airlines as a first officer, becoming a captain two years later. He then became an instructor in 2005 and an examiner in 2007.

Captain Tasbas was appointed Pegasus crew training director in 2006 and became joint CEO of the new training centre in January 2011.

Pegasus has already completed training first officers for various airlines, including some Dutch student pilots who graduated from their own academies in the Netherlands, before continuing their career in Indonesia.

It typically runs one type rating course each month, comprising 12 pilots.

“We have only the third simulator centre in the Turkish civil aviation industry. Turkish Airlines still owns and operates the largest number of simulators but they are barely meeting their own training demands and so are unable to provide training to other companies,” he said.

Captain Tasbas is full of praise for the Sim-Industries simulator. “The stunning graphics and realistic handling characteristics have been a joy to fly and train with,” he said.

“One example is the superiority of our simulator in reflecting realistic aircraft behaviour and flight dynamics in upset recovery situations, which is vital in training.”

The full range of courses on offer from Pegasus includes Boeing 737 NG + CL type rating; line training; company conversion training programme, combined optionally with or without type rating training (TRT) courses; crew resource management (CRM); multi-crew co-operation (MCC) and dangerous goods regulations (DGR) training.

Cabin training has been also provided since the airline’s inception in 1990.