Go With the Flow: Lift Academy and Cape Air Partnership Benefits Pilots

“I have been dreaming of the day I would step into a plane as an airline pilot, and now because of LIFT and Cape Air, I will be doing that much sooner than I ever expected,” said Abi Anderson, current LIFT Certified Flight Instructor (CFI).

Earlier this summer, LIFT Academy and Cape Air announced a strategic workforce development relationship, a flow program for LIFT graduates to fly as a Cape Air First Officer as they build their ATP-required flight hours, before moving to the left seat at Cape Air and then transitioning to a Republic pilot. At Republic, the pilots will operate daily flights for the airline’s codeshares—American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

Abi, who is a former American Airlines flight attendant, is among the first LIFT students to receive a job offer from Cape Air to participate in the program once she reaches around 500 flight hours, which could be as soon as this fall.

“I was lucky to visit Cape Air to see their operations, fly in their Cessna 402 simulator, meet some of their training staff and leadership and be immersed into their incredible culture,” she shared. “I know LIFT’s airline-focused training and G1000 technology within our training aircraft is preparing me in the best way possible to fly with Cape Air, and I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity.”

LIFT Academy is a flight and aviation maintenance training school that operates from the Indianapolis International Airport, and its graduates have the opportunity to flow to Cape Air to provide the airline a talented pool of aviators to operate its daily passenger flights throughout their four regions in the Midwest, Montana, Caribbean and the Northeast.

This relationship enables LIFT Academy and Cape Air to promote workforce development in aviation and provide greater opportunity for pathways to commercial airline careers. With this new career pathway, LIFT and Cape Air are making a career as a commercial airline pilot more attainable— pilots have a defined career trajectory from the moment they begin their flight training. And, it’s a lot quicker to reach their goal of becoming an airline pilot—joining Cape Air as a first officer at around 500 to 750 flight hours rather than the 1500 that is required by the FAA to fly for a larger regional airline.

Cape Air provides its pilots invaluable experience of learning how airlines operate, providing excellent customer service to its passengers, strengthening decision-making skills and honing technical skills of flying the aircraft.

“From the first day of onboarding at Cape Air, our pilots are focused on safety of the aircraft and the passengers. We have unique routes with the regions we serve in the Northeast, Midwest, Montana and Caribbean, so our pilots also become talented aviators that are well prepared for where their career takes them, which for this partnership, means Republic Airways in their next step,” Cape Air Director of Training Bill Guinee explained.

“LIFT students already have strong experience with the Garmin G1000 avionics which is also in our Tecnam fleet, along with experience with callouts and flows, so they’re able to quickly understand and adjust to our Cape Air standard operating procedures and focus on other areas of training,” Bill continued.

There are a lot of synergies between LIFT and Cape Air, and one that Abi noticed right away during her visit to their Hyannis, Mass., headquarters—their cultures.

“I felt at ease from the moment I walked in and met their recruitment and training teams. It felt like home—just like LIFT,” Abi shared. “I learned about their mantra MOCHA HAGoTDI (Make our customers happy and have a good time doing it) and thought, ‘Who can’t get behind that?’ and besides, that’s exactly why I started my flight training at LIFT in the first place—to do what I love and inspire others along the way.”

Interested in learning more about LIFT’s flight program and the flow opportunity to Cape Air? Contact LIFT Admissions at (317) 471-2200 or by emailing explore@flywithlift.com.

You can also visit www.flywithlift.com and www.capeairpilots.com for more information.

@flywithlift