Training
Airbus and SIA showcase new flight training partnership
November 1st 2015
Airbus’ strategy of developing centres of training and manufacturing excellence in the Asia-Pacific reached another milestone last month with the unveiling of its joint venture Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC) in the Lion City. Read More »
Joint venture partners, Airbus (55%) and Singapore Airlines (45%), said the AATC, scheduled for completion in Singapore’s Seletar Aerospace Park by March next year, will be the manufacturer’s largest training centre outside Toulouse and the first in the region to be equipped with an Airbus A350XWB full flight simulator
Last month, Airbus introduced the media to the AATC, now housed in temporary facilities at the SIA Training Centre near Changi Airport. The new training company has been offering courses at the facility since April. Initially operating with two A330 and one A380 simulator, the first A350 simulator to be installed in the region has now arrived and is offering courses.
The new 9,250m² centre will provide type rating and recurrent training courses for all in-production Airbus models. When it is fully operational, it will have eight full flight simulators; three A350 XWBs, one A380, two A330s and two A320s, with the capacity to instruct more than 10,000 trainees a year, said its general manager, Airbus Captain Yann Lardet. The centre could accommodate four more simulators, he said.
At present, if an Asia-Pacific airline pilot needs type or recurrent training at a European facility, he or she would be out of active service for up to a week for a standard recurrent training course, taking extended rest and travel periods into consideration.
Typically, it takes about five to ten days for a pilot currently flying an Airbus variant to receive type rating for the A350. Conversion for pilots trained on Boeing fleets requires about 25 days.
The company has won the business of SIA, Qantas Airways, Virgin Australia, Bangkok Airways, Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines, Lion Air, Fiji Airways and Kuwait Airways.
The AATC, which mainly draws its instructors from Airbus and retired SIA cockpit crew, comes to the region just in time to meet a projected 5.7% annual growth in passenger numbers, with demand for 12,740 new passenger and freight aircraft valued at $2 trillion to 2034. This translates into an increase in the Asia-Pacific cockpit population from around 64,000 today to more than 120,000 in two decades.
