USA & New Zealand – AeroGuard Flight Training Center, an Air New Zealand’s flight training provider, has just graduated its first cadets for the airline’s Mangōpare Air New Zealand Pilot Cadetship. As a leading provider of career-focused ab initio flight training across the globe, AeroGuard is proud to partner with Ansett Aviation Training to prepare high-quality pilots for New Zealand’s flag carrier.

AeroGuard has partnered with Air New Zealand since 2024, welcoming five cohorts of cadets to the school’s Phoenix, Arizona, USA campus to date. Cadets within the world leading Mangōpare Cadetship complete their initial flight training at AeroGuard, which includes licenses through Commercial Multi Engine with Instrument Rating. Upon completing this phase, cadets move on to Dubai to complete their Type Rating and Multi Crew Cooperation (MCC) with Ansett Aviation Training before starting their careers with Air New Zealand.

These first graduates have completed their training in under 12 months and are now preparing to continue their advanced training with Ansett, bringing them one step closer to their professional careers with Air New Zealand. AeroGuard designed this program in partnership with Ansett Aviation to provide a beginning-to-end pilot training solution for the airline, ensuring they are met with knowledgeable, high-quality, and experienced pilots fully prepared for commercial airline pilot careers.

Joel Davidson, AeroGuard CEO, shared “We are thrilled to highlight Air New Zealand’s first cadets successfully graduating from initial pilot training with AeroGuard. This program was built to provide airline-ready professionals and we are proud of these cadets’ hard work and dedication to become just that. This partnership ensures a consistent pipeline of well-trained pilots who will uphold safety, professionalism, and excellence for Air New Zealand.”

Other pilot cadets from Air New Zealand at AeroGuard are continuing to progress through their career-focused training and are expected to follow these first graduates. These cadets train alongside other industry leading airline cadets from Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, and Air India.

Located in the global destination for flight training, AeroGuard’s Phoenix, Arizona, USA campus provides students with an ideal training environment built to fully prepare them for commercial airline pilot careers. This environment consists of 350+ VFR flying days a year, varying airspace complexity, diverse terrain, and is enriched by AeroGuard’s 120+ aircraft fleet and population of over 250 flight instructors.

As a leading flight training provider, AeroGuard continues to build the next generation of professional pilots within a career-focused, safety first, structured environment to establish successful pilot careers.

About AeroGuard Flight Training Center
AeroGuard Flight Training Center is a global leader in ab initio flight training with three U.S. campuses. AeroGuard offers professionally focused commercial pilot training programs to students and airlines all over the world. With a commitment to safety and student success, AeroGuard’s high quality training has established airline-ready cadets for over 25 years with more than one million flight hours of training experience and graduating over 8,000 cadets.

Source: AeroGuard Flight Training Center
Photo Credit: Air New Zealand