Norwegian start-up launches pilot-specific psychometric testing tool

A Norwegian start-up is marketing a psychometric assessment battery built for pilot selection rather than adapted from general-use tests. Aerometricx says the tool is meant to help airlines, training organisations and flight schools with recruitment.

AAP Aviation, a crew and aviation management company, put the battery together with the University of Cambridge's psychometrics centre and psychologists from the Scandinavian Institute of Aviation Psychology. It covers cognitive, personality and behavioural functions across eleven dimensions, with separate modules for captains, first officers and cadets.

Alejandro Salinas, AAP Aviation's head of pilot recruitment, said earlier tests in the sector were adaptations of tools developed for other purposes, and that this one was created for pilots from the outset. The aim, he said, was to identify the characteristics and competencies an effective pilot profile should have for safe and effective flight operations.

Vesselin Popov, executive director at the Cambridge centre, said its teams combined academic and psychometric practice with AAP's recruitment and training experience.

Salinas said the tool could benefit the industry's approach to assessing pilots and the quality it needs. He did not give a timeline for wider adoption.