Qantas Group Pilot Academy puts young aviators on the fast track to aerial excellence
A chance meeting with a female pilot during high school has transformed Allegra Nash into one of Australia’s youngest commercial pilots flying regional routes.
The moment that set Allegra Nash on the path to an airline cockpit didn’t happen in the air.
It took place in her year 11 classroom at Willoughby Girls High School on Sydney’s lower north shore in 2019, during an International Women’s Day careers event.
“I received an opportunity for International Women’s Day to participate in a Qantas promotional video,” Nash says.
On that day she met Qantas pilot Camille McPherson, who took her to Sydney airport, into the cockpit of a jet and even into a flight simulator. It was the first time Nash saw the industry from the inside.
“She basically acted as a mentor for me that day, which was my first real interaction with aviation and with the Qantas group,” she says. “Meeting Camille was transformative for me. I’m still in touch with her now, and she’s still a super-important mentor for me, especially, being a female in the industry.”
Nash had always been fascinated by aeroplanes. A childhood family flight to Fiji had planted the first seed. But it wasn’t until those high-school years, seeing female pilots moving through terminals and hearing from career advisers, that the idea of becoming one herself felt real.
After finishing school, Nash initially began an aviation degree at UNSW. But when her mother discovered the Qantas Group Pilot Academy was reopening after the pandemic, she quickly redirected.
“Unlike many pilots, I had no aviation family tree to lean on,” she says.
“Both my parents don’t do anything aviation-related.”
The academy model – an accelerated 13-month program delivered at Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba – offered two diplomas, industry-standard qualifications and, crucially, a clear pathway into the Qantas Group.
At the academy, it was the instructors, both in the air and on the ground, who made the biggest impact. The support, the trust, and the accumulated experience they brought shaped her training. Nash often says she would not have progressed the way she did without them.
The process of joining the Qantas Group took close to 10 months of computer-based assessments, interviews, simulator testing and then long stretches of waiting on the hold file. When the call came, she was assigned to QantasLink, flying the Dash-8 Q400 across regional Australia.
Her first day in the cockpit is etched into her memory. She monitored the outbound sector and flew the return. It remains one of the milestones she treasures. “The first flight was amazing. It was such a blur. I feel like I just I finished that day, and I was so, so happy,” Nash says.
“Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to take my parents on a flight out of Brisbane into the coal mining town of Moranbah, which has been awesome as well.”
Nash is now acutely aware of her role as part of a growing cohort of women entering Australian cockpits. She has been fortunate, she says, to fly under female captains and to learn from women who paved the way before her.
She stresses that the culture within QantasLink has been overwhelmingly supportive. From her earliest days, colleagues and peers – male and female – have championed the women on the roster.
The academy, she believes, is a big part of why these opportunities exist. The cadet pathway created for her cohort accelerated her progress and sent a strong signal that the airline is committed to developing Australian pilots from the ground up.
“I genuinely believe in the investment Qantas makes in young pilots,” she says. “The accelerated pathway that we went through as cadets, was a great opportunity for my career progression.”
Working for Qantas also means something deeper.
“I am very proud working for Qantas, especially when you see little girls and even little boys walking through the airport,” Nash says. “You know you are recognised as a figure. It is also quite special to be able to connect people to their regional communities.”
She has now been with QantasLink for two years. Becoming a captain is on the horizon, perhaps in two or three years, once she builds the flying hours. But she is realistic about the journey ahead.
Beyond that, she dreams of long-haul flying. Captaincy of a wide-body jet flying internationally one day in the future is a vision she holds clearly. She relishes each time she hears female voices on the public-address system of large jets she has flown on as a passenger.
Having Vanessa Hudson leading Qantas as a female CEO also resonates with her. It is symbolic, she says, and important for the generations of women coming up behind her.
“I think Vanessa is awesome … to have a female spearheading the way for the rest of us is really important,” Nash says.
But her greatest fans will always be the very special passengers that were on board the first time she flew into Moranbah.
“My parents have been my biggest supporters throughout the whole process,” she says. “Being able to take them on that flight was really special. I know my dad was tearing up, but he won’t admit it.”
