With more than 1100 aviation engineers across Air New Zealand, Williams said building a strong, sustainable talent pipeline was \u201cimportant to maintaining world-class engineering and maintenance capability here in Aotearoa\u201d.<\/p>\n
If the study confirms a viable opportunity, Air New Zealand would contribute industry expertise to support programme design, curriculum alignment and pathways into employment. <\/p>\n
Long-term funding and operating arrangements would be developed with education providers, hap\u016b, iwi and community stakeholders.<\/p>\n
Grant McCallum with Air New Zealand CEO Nikhil Ravishankar, and Ng\u0101ti R\u0113hia Kaum\u0101tua, Kipa Munro.<\/p>\n
Northland Inc chief executive Paul Linton said developing skilled talent pipelines is key to Northland\u2019s long-term growth.<\/p>\n
He said the initiative could connect rangatahi with high-value aviation engineering careers while supporting a critical national industry. It also showed how partnerships between industry, iwi and education can build capability in Te Tai Tokerau.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve built a strong partnership with Air New Zealand and it is encouraging to see it evolve, with the airline\u2019s interest in skills and training investment reflecting growing confidence in Northland as a place to invest and create opportunity,\u201d Linton said.<\/p>\n
Ng\u0101ti R\u0113hia has endorsed further exploration with early discussions highlighting potential for meaningful local impact through skills development and employment.<\/p>\n
Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101ti R\u0113hia chairperson Kipa Munro said they support the potential development as it could open up a new pathway for local rangatahi. <\/p>\n
\u201cAviation may not be an obvious option when we look at the common and usual career choices but may in fact be very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aviation Industry Association chief executive Simon Wallace said an aviation training facility could be a win for Northland and the wider aviation community.<\/p>\n
He said there is a shortage of about 300 aviation engineers in New Zealand annually and the industry has been working together to address it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really pleased that as a result of the work that we\u2019ve done that Air New Zealand is going to look at a feasibility study with the hope that there will be an engineering training facility and it will be really good for Northland youth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallace said there was not enough funding support for aviation engineering training and the Government would need to step in to back the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce a young New Zealander has completed their engineering training, it\u2019s actually a very, very good career pathway to earning a really good salary over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wallace said existing aviation pathways have been really limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we are in real desperate need for the kind of training facility that Air New Zealand is planning up in Kerikeri.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northland MP Grant McCallum said the region would benefit from high-value training and career pathways if the feasibility study succeeds. <\/p>\n
He said it\u2019s a great opportunity for Kerikeri and would connect youth to well-paid jobs that boost the wider Northland economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the feasibility work stacks up, this could become a flagship example of how industry and community can work together to deliver real training opportunities and real jobs for Northland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Findings from the feasibility study will be made available in late 2026 and will determine whether an aviation training school can be established in Kerikeri and what partnership, delivery and funding arrangements would be required to bring it to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With more than 1100 aviation engineers across Air New Zealand, Williams said building a strong, sustainable talent pipeline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[68,15033,138,124,75,47548,2753,2082,151788,78,2454,296,16571,19133,111,139,1067,69,6744,9979,4062,2249,383,11685,14905],"class_list":{"0":"post-391864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-air","9":"tag-aviation","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-could","12":"tag-engineering","13":"tag-engineers","14":"tag-eyes","15":"tag-for","16":"tag-highvalue","17":"tag-in","18":"tag-industry","19":"tag-into","20":"tag-kerikeri","21":"tag-looking","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-northland","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-place","27":"tag-right","28":"tag-school","29":"tag-soon","30":"tag-study","31":"tag-train","32":"tag-whether"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}