(Image Credit: Curtis Goodrum / CFJC Today)

By Curtis Goodrum

PILOT SHORTAGE

Pilot shortage, lack of government support threatening Kamloops flight school

Jan 26, 2026 | 5:39 PM

KAMLOOPS – The Canadian Flight Centre is one of a handful of flight schools in Kamloops helping prospective pilots attain commercial and private pilot licenses.

With North America currently experiencing a pilot shortage, the flight centre says recent changes to international student laws have made it harder for flight schools to keep their business out of the red.

“Flight training is expensive and a lot of domestic students struggle with paying for it or they have to have a job on the side, and the training takes a very long time,” said Peter Schliek, the CEO of the Canadian Flight Centre. “Student loans, especially in B.C., probably don’t even cover a quarter of the training.”

Calum Liard, a student at the Canadian Flight Centre, told CFJC he’s “lucky” to be able to go to the flight school, noting those financial pressures can send many hopeful pilots into a tailspin.

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“It’s expensive but it has to be expensive but it would be nice if more programs were available for funding,” Laird said. “There are very few scholarships that I’ve been able to find. I was very blessed to have my parents have a line of credit that I could borrow against.”

The course takes around a year to complete, but it can cost up to $80,000. It also requires a lot of dedicated time to get as many flight hours as possible.

“It’s been a little tricky just trying to balance everything, making sure I’m flying a lot as well as studying and having to work in that as well,” Laid added. “It can be a little tricky to manage. I didn’t break it up because I figured if I broke it up, I’d just take way too long.”

Kamloops Councillor Bill Sarai, who is also president of the Kamloops Airport Authority Society, has called on the B.C. government to fund financial aid for students in flight programs. He renewed that call this month as Kamloops Airport reported a slight downturn in the number of passengers in 2025.

Schliek hopes the federal and provincial governments become aware of this issue and help flight schools. Otherwise, he said plane tickets in Canada will become more expensive domestically and internationally, as airlines struggle to find pilots to keep up with demand.

“The public is not very aware of it. They will be aware of it at a point when flights to Hawaii and Mexico are getting more and more expensive or become unavailable,” Schliek said. “But then it’s too late.”

“If flight schools die, the supply chain for airlines is interrupted and there will be less commercial flights happening because they don’t have the pilots.”

“We have to bring more pilots, train more pilots to avoid the future shortage of pilots.” 

Schliek also said if changes to increase student enrolment don’t come soon, the flight school may be forced to open its hanger bay doors somewhere else in Canada, possibly in Alberta, which is “more supportive for flight training.”

“We will lose flight schools because as they cannot support the business anymore,” he said. “We are thinking about closing the Kamloops location [even though] we just built a big $2 million state of the art hangar. We would hate to give it up, but if it’s not viable anymore, we’ll have to.”