As a flight training academy, the wellbeing of our academy family – our staff and students, is our number one priority, never more so in times such as the current Covid-19 outbreak. It is also important for us to manage training, work and individual family commitments.
With this in mind, we have taken a number of measures to ensure that we continue to operate in a safe environment for our academy family. We have an ERP (Emergency Response Plan) should the current situation escalate further and this is appraised on a daily basis by our Board of Directors. In the meantime we are also taking a number of precautions that we hope will enable us to maintain the ‘safe zone’ that we are establishing for our students and staff to work within. For example (but not exclusively) our cleaning regime has been up-scaled and all communal training facilities such as our flight simulator and student mini bus are equipped with wipes and alcohol gel in addition to their enhanced cleaning schedule. Business travel using public transport has been suspended and we continue to review attendance at future events. If any staff or students have travelled recently, they are requested to monitor their own health and self-isolate if they or close family members develop any symptoms, or if they have come from an ‘at risk’ area.
Further to this, visitors and newcomers to the academy are restricted and their travel history established prior to attending our facilities. Any non-urgent meetings are being moved to virtual environments including interviews where possible. We are also looking at ways to bring our Skills Assessment into a virtual environment and hope to make an announcement regarding this very shortly.
For events hosted at the academy, we are asking visitors to apply the same precautions, to only come if they are fit and well, and we are also limiting visitor numbers at any given time. With this in mind, we have taken the decision to cancel our planned Open Day on 4 April and will instead look to offer an alternative option, again, a further announcement on our forthcoming virtual tour will be made soon. Anyone wishing to book a private tour in place of an Open Day or virtual tour is invited to book in for a 1-to-1 visit and we ask that only students looking to train within the next 6 months come in person, bringing only one guest with them.
However, the two areas that are our highest priority are our Ground School and Flight Training facilities. Looking first to Ground School, we are continuing to provide small class-based training. All staff and students are requested to continue to self-isolate if necessary and of course we will continue to use our technology to its fullest capacity. With a comprehensive VLE (virtual learning environment) we can deliver a great deal of the training remotely, not to mention delivering lessons via video conferencing and webinars – this will be introduced as appropriate. For Flight Training, student and staff numbers will be managed closely so only small groups attend the academy at any one time, and that aircraft and briefing areas will be included into our enhanced cleaning regime. Non-operational staff will be working from home where possible.
With regard to courses due to begin over the coming months, we are looking forward to welcoming our new students to the family knowing that we are doing all we can to protect their health and wellbeing.
We will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis and will publish any significant updates as they occur.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding our response to Covid-19, please contact Katie Broadhurst, Chief Talent Officer at katie.broadhurst@leadingedgeaviation.com, other media enquiries should be directed to Sarah Champneys, Head of Marketing at sarah.champneys@leadingedgeaviation.com and of course enquiries about future courses with Debbie or Will.
With our best wishes,
Leading Edge Aviation
