LANGKAWI, Mon. - The country's second private flight training school here, the Langkawi Aerospace Training Centre (LATC), will produce 100 new private and commercial pilots annually.

 
The school, which is fully-owned by Halim Mazmin Group, will start accepting the first intake of 30 students in April and another 30 in October.

 
Halim Mazmin's executive chairman, Tan Sri Halim Mohammad, said the flight school would meet the need for more trained pilots and promote economic growth on the island. The school would also become the first to offer a diploma in aviation management under a programme to be jointly-organised with Universiti Utara Malaysia.

 
"Trainees will be sponsored by the two local airlines to obtain the commercial pilot licence while the rest will be private students from other countries," he said at a Press conference after Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Syed Razak Syed Zain opened the school.

 
During the ceremony, LATC, represented by its chief executive officer Syed Ahmad Tun Syed Nasir, signed two memorandums of understanding, the first with UUM for accreditation for the diploma course and second, with Aero Precision Resources Sdn Bhd to provide a four-year licensed aircraft maintenance engineering course.

 
UUM was represented by its deputy vice chancellor Prof Datuk Abdul Razak Chik while APRS was represented by its managing director Amiruddin Abdul Ghani.