UK: Airlines keeping safety training 'to an absolute minimum'

The head of the UK's Flight Safety Committee says that airlines and plane manufacturers are keeping safety training to an "absolute minimum" under pressure to keep their costs low. Dai Whittingham, head of the trade group, said the industry has "less desire to provide training". Whittingham said that "shareholders are squeezing airlines hard on costs. Spending on training fleets of captains and first officers is not necessarily welcome." He said that if airlines wanted more training then they had to argue with their financial teams to get it signed off. Money was also an issue for the airplane manufacturers, according to Whittingham. "They don't want to sell aircraft that will incur a big training bill for the airline, it is in their interests to keep costs down." <br/>