Airbus’ second pilot training centre in India

Airbus has signed an agreement with CAE Simulator Training on the opening day of India Aviation in Hyderabad, to set up a second Indian pilot and maintenance crew training centre. The centre will be located in Noida near New Delhi. CAE Simulator Training is a joint venture between InterGlobe and Canada’s flight simulator company CAE.

The agreement follows a ground breaking ceremony held in Noida in November 2011. The centre will be fully operational by 2013, and will have a capacity to train up to 5,000 crews annually, making it one of the biggest training facilities of its type in the region.

Noida is Airbus’ second Indian pilot training facility in addition to the Airbus Training India centre (ATI) which was opened in Bangalore in 2007. The new facility will be spread over a 3.5 acre site and initially house up to six full-flight simulators with a capability to expand to eight simulator bays. Advanced training technology will be used such as CAE Simfinity multimedia classrooms, computer-based training and brief/debrief facilities.

The focus of the new Delhi training centre will be to provide “wet” and “dry” type-rating, recurrent, conversion and jet indoctrination training for commercial aircraft pilots. Programs will also be offered for maintenance technicians.

Dr Kiran Rao, Airbus Executive Vice President Sales and President Airbus India, said, “India remains one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world and in the long terms requires more aircraft and additional pilots and maintenance crews to fly them. India is a strategically important market and we strategic partnership like the new training centre will help India’s aviation sector to grow and to prosper.”

Rahul Bhatia, Group Managing Director, InterGlobe, said, “Airbus and CAE’s participation in this initiative will give the much needed impetus to meet the talent needs of the civil aviation community. We are confident that in due course this facility will emerge as a centre of excellence for not just India but South Asia offering access to world-class training technology and solutions in to commercial aviation industry.”

Jeff Roberts, CAE Group President, Civil Simulation Products, Training and Services said, “The additional training capacity CAE is establishing with InterGlobe and Airbus in anticipation of further growth in India and neighboring regions will enable our airline customers to stay one step ahead of demand for aviation professionals trained using the most advanced technology available.”