A pilot and potentially a future airline executive, Ian Welsch Bisso already has experience running his own airline, among other things provisioning it with airliners, operating and maintaining the fleet, and eventually retiring and replacing those planes.
The virtual airline simulation was part of what Welsch Bisso, who lives in Lima, Peru, described as his favorite class in Purdue University’s 100% online master’s degree program in Aviation and Aerospace Management.
A first officer flying the A320 Airbus for LATAM Airlines, a major multinational carrier with more than 140 destinations in South and Central America, the U.S., Europe and more, he hopes to become a captain in three to five years and then move into management, perhaps in airline safety, security or another aviation field.
Welsch Bisso said his tendency is to plan ahead. Even before he finished his bachelor’s degree in aviation management and earned his commercial pilot’s license from the Florida Institute of Technology, he started examining options for graduate school.
He thought he might go back to school after flying for a few years first. But COVID hit and Welsch Bisso found himself with more time on his hands than he expected. He had researched online master’s programs and Purdue, “a very known and a very important university in the field of aviation” stood out with high ratings and positive online reviews.
Welsch Bisso started with Purdue’s online graduate certificate in Aviation Safety Management, which he finished while working as a customer service representative for American Airlines during the pandemic. Then, he decided to go ahead and complete the full master’s degree. The credits from the graduate certificate rolled into the full degree, putting him halfway to graduation already.
“When I found Purdue I found the best option for me,” Welsch Bisso said.
The flexibility of Purdue’s online program allowed him to continue his studies once he began flying for LATAM.
“The life of a pilot doesn't give you much time to study on a regular basis because of the schedule,” Welsch Bisso said. “The option to do it online gave me the option to study at my own pace, at my own time, when I had free time, and when I was ready to do it."
He found Purdue’s curriculum to be rigorous but doable. Working for American, sometimes on a nighttime schedule, he tended to do schoolwork before his shift and on free days. As a pilot, with brain-intensive professional “homework” to study (flight plans, weather reports) before his flights, he generally stuck to doing his schoolwork on his days off and during layovers in various cities rather than going out and exploring.
Purdue’s master’s degree in Aviation and Aerospace Management is designed for professionals looking to develop essential management and leadership skills applicable to the aviation field. The industry-specific courses, covering numerous aviation management roles, are taught by faculty with distinguished educational backgrounds and extensive work experience in civilian aviation, military aviation, and government.
Although he was an online student, Welsch Bisso didn’t feel isolated. There was ample interaction with the program’s instructors and his fellow students, the latter of whom were from around the world and across the U.S. Students kept in contact and were able to work together on group projects by email, WhatsApp and other electronic means.
“The professors always were available to us,” Welsch Bisso said. “If we had any questions, if we had any doubt, we were able to contact them, and they always answered quickly.”
Welsch Bisso has graduated – in May 2024 he traveled from Lima to Purdue’s flagship campus in West Lafayette, Ind., to take the graduation walk and get his diploma with his parents along for the trip – but he may not be done with Purdue. In addition to the graduate certificate in Aviation Safety Management, Purdue has a graduate certificate in Aviation Financial Management that he is considering. He thinks there might even be a doctorate in his future.
For more information about Purdue’s Master of Science degree in Aviation and Aerospace Management, visit the program website.
