Sydney Flight College plans Tamworth expansion as activity at Tamworth Regional Airport takes flight

The Leader can confirm Sydney Flight College (SFC), currently based at Bankstown, plans to call the vacated pilot training facility at Tamworth Regional Airport home sometime next year.

The move would see the college take advantage of Tamworth's "low-density" airspace and enable it to take on international students.

Tamworth Regional Council's director of growth and prosperity, Jacqueline O'Neill, said staff had been in discussions with a number of interested parties for the training facility, which due to its size, could accommodate more than one school.

But she said SFC's plans and timeline "fits nicely" with council's vision and current workers accommodation arrangements at the airport, which end next year.

"We have said to SFC that we would love for them to call Tamworth their new home," Ms O'Neill said.

"But, what we would like to do is to accommodate all the entities that we're talking to at the moment, but we need to better understand what their needs are.

"With SFC, they're looking at starting next year, which is terrific and sits with everything that we want to do, we'd be very happy for them to start then."

With construction on the new Western Sydney Airport changing the way pilots operate in Sydney, the college had been looking for a new home.

It visited the recent Tamworth Agriculture Careers Expo and Northwest Regional Careers Expo, and a spokesperson said there was a growing interest from the region's youth in opportunities in the aviation sector.

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The move could see hundreds of students and dozens of instructors relocate to Tamworth before mid-next year, which would significantly boost the local economy.

"It's very important to us from an economic perspective because it creates new jobs and there's ancillary businesses that flow on from pilot training, like maintenance," Ms O'Neill said.

"More people living here means more people spending here and it's a great pathway for youth in terms of aviation."

With Tamworth averaging just 10 non-flying days a year, Ms O'Neill said the location was viewed favourably across Australia for its great flying environment.

"Tamworth is a great place to train people, and the reason is we have such great weather," she said.

"When you look at places like Victoria, Queensland or even down in Sydney, they're inhibited by their weather."

It follows a turbulent period for Tamworth's airport after movements came to a standstill during the pandemic, and a $30 million Virgin Australia pilot training school deal fell through in 2020.

The training facility has been dormant of pilots for two years, but council said kick-starting the precinct is now a top priority with movements at the airport creeping closer to pre-pandemic levels.

During the month of March, there were 11,000 passenger movements at the airport, and by May that had increased to almost 12,000.

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