Speech delivered – Dakar, Senegal – 27th of October 2022

My name is Romy Hawatt and I am the Founder & Chairman of the Airways Aviation – ESMA – Group.

I look across this forum of distinguished Military leaders, delegates, sponsors and fellow speakers and ask myself the question, ‘How do we add value and support unity in purpose in this vast diversity of friends and allies’?

I represent a partnership (between the Airways Aviation Group and CAE Defense & Security) that has delivered aviation related training in various forms and at various levels to both the Military and Civilian space for decades.

We in fact recently won a long-term contract to provide ab-initio through to MEIR training to the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and German Navy Air Wing with training currently being delivered at our world class facilities in both Montpellier, France and Bremen, Germany.

Airways Aviation ESMA Group have over 35 years of international experience and boasts being the largest privately owned group of multidisciplinary aviation academies in the world today.

We have trained more than 9,000 pilots and we currently own and maintain Europe’s largest fleet of Diamond DA 40 and DA 42 aircraft.

Our renowned industry partners CAE Defence & Security need little or no introduction and provide training and mission support solutions across – air, land, maritime, space and cyber in complex, high-stakes environments.

CAE also boasts the broadest global presence in our industry, with approximately 11,000 employees, 180 sites, and training locations in over 50 countries.

1. Together, we bring the worlds best practices via bespoke contracted training programs to Military Cadet Pilots with the added benefit of Cadets being awarded a European EASA Civil Air Transport Pilots License upon graduation.

2. Our training processes provides a unique solution to the ongoing development of future pipelines of pilots with the Military discipline, skills and leadership qualities required to help leverage the respective Militaries and allies to sustain their ‘foundational readiness’.

3. We deliver training (start through to graduation) in a cost and time effective manner whilst simultaneously helping the Military to best utilize and deploy their current training resources.

My colleague, Captain Mauro Calvano (President of our European academies and operations) will follow on from me with a brief presentation but meanwhile, I would like to encourage and persuade the esteemed participants here today to take the time to speak with us off-line to discuss the deliverables, methodologies and benefits that our Military training systems provide.

Thank you for participating !