Australia’s Regional Express (Rex) has begun pilot training at its new school near Melbourne which has been established in part to help it resolve a crew shortage problem that has been affecting its operations.

Rex says in a statement that an initial group of 17 students started training at the new Civil Aviation Training Academy (CATA) this week.

The students are expected to graduate within 32 weeks with a commercial pilot licence, multi engine rating and command instrument rating, after which they will go through another three months of training before starting to work as a first officer with the airline.

The carrier says it received more than 1,000 applications for places in its new cadet pilot programme and a second group of 20 students should start training in three months.

“The Academy intends to accept up to 80 pilots in the first year with plans to grow th

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