OREANDA-NEWS. October 21, 2014. Six cadets from Air Astana, along with those from several other countries, have completed their training as commercial airline pilots at one of Europe’s leading flying colleges, FTE in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain. Oscar Sordo, CEO of FTE Jerez, Peter Foster, President of Air Astana, Filippos Siakkas, KC Director of Flight Training, Anthony Regan, KCSVP Operations and Timur Mashurov, First Officer Boeing fleet all took part in the graduation ceremony.

The Kazakhstani cadets have graduated from the Ab-Initio training programme launched by the airline in 2009, and on return to Kazakhstan they will begin working as first officers.

The aim of Ab-Initio is to provide an efficient training programme and reduce the shortage of skilled pilots. A total of 142 people have now completed the programme, with 25 still taking part.