Phoenix East Aviation Celebrates its 40th Anniversary Training Pilots

Phoenix East Aviation, Daytona Beach, Florida, is celebrating 40 years of training professional pilots for careers in aviation worldwide.

The academy was founded in Massachusetts in 1972, later moving to its present location in Daytona Beach, Florida, to take advantage of what is arguably the best flying weather in the U.S., typically allowing 360 days of flying annually.

Phoenix East Aviation was founded by Nino Ciancetta, a senior pilot with U.S. Air (currently U.S. Airways). Captain Ciancetta, now deceased, was one of the highest flight hour pilots for U.S. Air at the time he retired. He was also well-known in the industry as a vice president of the Airline Pilots Association.

Well-known as a truly international academy, Phoenix East has taught men and women to fly from over 100 countries. The academy considers the diversity that comes from its’ international student body to be especially advantageous to young pilots who wish a career flying for international airlines. Both students and instructors are from many different countries worldwide.

In addition to its stature as a world-class pilot training academy, Phoenix East is also one of the few flight training organizations in the U.S. to be nationally certified, which assures potential students of exceptionally high quality training. Phoenix East is also one of only a few independent flight training academies to offer international students both the M-1 and F-1 visas.

Ghassan Reslan, CEO of Phoenix East, comments on the 40th anniversary: “we are celebrating this significant anniversary with all our students from all over the world. We are one of the few U.S. – actually, worldwide – academies that is truly international with students from all over the globe.” Mr. Reslan, a former international airline pilot himself, also noted that Phoenix East Aviation has continued to be managed by airline pilots, as well as by experienced general aviation and former military pilots. This has been the core of maintaining the high quality of training that the academy is known for by airlines and professional pilots worldwide.   For more information about pilot training, go to www.pea.com.