MAB Academy Welcomes 39 Candidates to Malaysia Aviation Group Cadet Programme

MAB Academy, the training subsidiary of Malaysia Aviation Group, has admitted 39 aspiring pilots to its Cadet Pilot Pre-Enrolment Programme in September 2026. The intake supports a group-wide plan to bring in 144 cadet pilots this year.

Where the Intake Fits

As of 1 April 2026 the academy already had 141 active cadets in training. A separate cohort of 17 cadet pilots joined at the Sepang campus in July before moving on to their assigned flying schools. The September group enters a pre-enrolment stage, a preparatory step before cadets are placed into the main flight training pipeline.

MAG has not published how many of the 39 are expected to progress, or the timetable for their selection into flying schools.

The Academy

MAB Academy is based in the Southern Support Zone near Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang. It traces its roots to the Malaysia Airlines Academy, established in 1994, and became an independent MAG subsidiary in 2017. It holds approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia and operates six full-flight simulator bays supporting Airbus A330neo, Boeing 737-800NG and ATR 72-500 training.

The simulator mix covers wide-body, narrow-body and turboprop types.

Regional Demand

Southeast Asia is one of the faster-growing sources of pilot demand. Boeing’s 2026 Pilot and Technician Outlook projects 66,000 new pilots will be needed in the region over 20 years, within an Asia-Pacific total of 261,000, about 38 percent of the global requirement of 674,000.

The MAG model pairs an in-house academy with assigned flying schools, as the July cohort’s move to such schools shows, which spreads flying-training capacity beyond a single campus.

The numbers show how the pipeline stacks up. With 141 cadets already in training in April, 17 more joining in July and 39 entering pre-enrolment in September, MAB Academy is handling several overlapping groups at different stages. The 144-cadet annual target is larger than the total number of cadets the academy reported in training in April, so the plan implies continued intakes through the year rather than a single large start.

The academy’s six simulator bays are also a differentiator. Having A330neo, 737-800NG and ATR 72-500 devices on the same campus lets the group run type-specific and recurrent training for its own crews as well as cadets, so the facility serves both new entrants and the existing pilot workforce. MAG has not said how many of the pre-enrolment candidates will receive airline sponsorship.

What to Note

The 144-cadet figure is a recruitment target rather than a guarantee of airline employment. Candidates considering such schemes should look at whether the programme is sponsored or self-funded, how a type rating is arranged, and what happens to those who do not complete.