Flight Training at Bankstown Airport, Sydney
Train to become a professional pilot at Basair’s Sydney campus, located at Bankstown Airport; one of Australia’s leading general aviation training environments.
Start your professional pilot training at Basair’s Sydney campus.
Bankstown Airport Courses
From your first flight through to a Commercial Pilot Licence, Instrument Rating or Flight Instructor Rating, train in a structured professional environment at one of Australia’s major general aviation airports.
Bankstown Airport | Sydney, NSW
Explore Our Courses | Attend a Career Seminar at Bankstown Airport
Training professional pilots since 1991.
Commercial Pilot Licence
Start with no flying experience and progress through to your CASA CPL flight test.
Instrument Rating
Complete your Multi-Engine Command Instrument Rating in the Piper Seminole and DCX-Max FSTD.
Flight Instructor Rating
Develop the instructional skills required to begin a career teaching future pilots.
CPL + Instrument Rating
Complete the professional qualifications commonly sought for entry-level commercial aviation.
Learning to fly at Bankstown Airport means learning in a real aviation environment from the beginning.
Bankstown Airport, in Sydney’s southwest, is one of Australia’s major general aviation airports and an important centre for professional pilot training. It is a busy controlled aerodrome used by training aircraft, charter and commercial operators, freight aircraft, helicopters and other general aviation traffic. Its three parallel runways and location within the busy Sydney Basin make it a stimulating place to learn.
For a new student pilot, that may sound challenging.
It is — but that is also one of Bankstown’s greatest advantages.
At Basair, our objective is not simply to teach you how to pass a flight test. We are preparing you to operate as a professional pilot. Training at Bankstown means developing the communication, situational awareness, workload management and decision-making skills that professional flying requires.
Visit Basair at Bankstown Airport
Basair Aviation College – Bankstown
628 23-25 Airport Avenue
Bankstown Aerodrome NSW 2198
Phone: (02) 9791 0111
Open 5 Days a Week: 08:00 – 16:00
Busy Aerodrome vs Quiet Aerodrome?
At a quiet aerodrome, it is possible to complete much of a flying lesson with relatively little interaction with other aircraft or air traffic control.
Bankstown is different.
Before you have even taken off, you need to think about other aircraft, taxi routes, clearances, runway operations and what is happening around you.
Once airborne, you may be sharing the environment with other training aircraft, helicopters and commercial operators while communicating with air traffic control and maintaining awareness of Sydney’s surrounding airspace.
That introduces an important lesson very early in your training:
Flying the aircraft is only one part of being a pilot.
Professional pilots must simultaneously fly accurately, communicate clearly, understand where they are, anticipate what will happen next and make good decisions as conditions change.
Our instructors make the most of this opportunity, helping students understand how to maintain safety, and how to operate in the kind of airspace graduates typically start working in.
Radio communication becomes normal
The way a pilot communicates on the radio shows a lot about their competence and professionalism.
At Bankstown, instructors start to teach excellent radio communication right from the start.
Students learn how to listen before transmitting, understand instructions, read back clearances accurately and build a mental picture of what other aircraft are doing.
Just as importantly, students learn that good radio work is not about speaking as quickly as possible or memorising phrases. It is about communicating accurately and understanding the operational situation.
That takes experience.
That experience can be particularly valuable when students later operate at unfamiliar controlled aerodromes.
You develop skills in situational awareness from the beginning
Bankstown’s three parallel runway configuration allows significant numbers of aircraft to operate, but it also means pilots need a good understanding of the aerodrome layout. Current aviation information specifically emphasises the importance of planning ground movements and understanding runway, taxiway and ATC procedures at Bankstown.
For a student, this is useful training.
You learn to think ahead:
- Where am I taxiing?
- Which runway am I using?
- Where is the other traffic?
- What clearance have I received?
- What should I expect next?
These may appear to be small questions, but they develop an important professional habit: staying ahead of the aircraft rather than simply reacting to events as they occur.
Learning to fly in Sydney weather
Sydney’s weather rarely sits still for long. A calm winter morning can give way to a crisp westerly; a warm summer day can bring the sea breeze inland; cloud can build over the ranges; and occasionally a southerly change can transform the conditions remarkably quickly.
That variability makes Bankstown an excellent place to learn about weather as a pilot — not just as a subject in a textbook, but as something you see developing outside the cockpit.
The climate is generally mild. At Bankstown Airport, the long-term mean maximum temperature ranges from around 17.5°C in July to 28.5°C in January, with approximately 890 mm of rainfall annually. Late winter and early spring tend to be particularly dry, while rainfall is more frequent through the warmer months.
Its position in the Sydney Basin also creates useful aviation weather. Students become familiar with sea breezes, westerly winds, frontal changes, summer heat, showers, occasional thunderstorms and periods of morning fog or low cloud. The sea breeze itself is an important aviation phenomenon: as cooler maritime air pushes inland it can produce changes in wind direction, strength and local conditions during the course of a flying day.
For a student pilot, this is valuable. You learn that checking the weather is not simply a box to tick before departure. You begin to ask: What is the weather doing now? What is it likely to do next? And what does that mean for my flight?
On many days, Sydney provides beautiful flying conditions. On others, the weather asks you to think.
Both are useful when you are learning to become a professional pilot.
Bankstown Airport Weather Information:
Bankstown Aerodrome detailed forecast
Bankstown Aerodrome detailed weather forecastBankstown Aerodrome current observations
Live wind direction and strength, gusts, temperature, pressure, humidity and rainfall observations from the area. Current weather observations at Bankstown AerodromeNSW-East Graphical Area Forecasts
GAFs are one of the aviation-specific products students learn to work with. Australian Graphical Area ForecastsFlight training at Basair's Bankstown campus
Basair Aviation College has been training professional pilots since 1991 and provides commercial pilot, instrument rating and flight instructor training from its Bankstown campus.
Our training is structured around clearly defined Units of Study, with flying, theory, briefings, assessment and feedback integrated throughout the course.
The aim is not simply to accumulate the hours required for a licence.
It is to progressively develop the knowledge, flying skills, judgement and professional behaviours required for the next stage of your aviation career.
And Bankstown is an important part of that education.
Want to experience Bankstown for yourself?
If you are considering becoming a pilot, you can visit our Bankstown campus, attend a Pilot Career Seminar or take a Trial Instructional Flight and experience flying from Bankstown Airport yourself.
Explore our Commercial Pilot Licence course, book a Trial Instructional Flight, or contact Basair to discuss your pathway to becoming a professional pilot.
More than a training airport
Bankstown is not simply a place to conduct flying lessons. It is one of Sydney’s major general aviation precincts, with a wide range of aviation businesses and services operating alongside flight training.
