The new Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC), a joint venture owned 55% by Airbus and 45% by Singapore Airlines (SIA), was officially opened in Singapore on 18th April. The opening ceremony was hosted by Fabrice Brégier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Airbus and Goh Choon Phong, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Airlines, in the presence of S Iswaran, Minister of Trade and Industry (Industry) for the Republic of Singapore.
The 9,250m2 facility in Singapore becomes the fourth Airbus flight crew training centre worldwide, alongside Toulouse, Miami and Beijing. The new building and simulators represent an investment of $100m.
The new centre offers type rating and recurrent training courses for all in-production Airbus types and when fully operational will be Airbus’ largest flight crew training facility, with eight full-flight simulators, comprising three A350 XWBs, one A380, two A330s and two A320s. The centre will also have six fixed cockpit training devices and extensive classroom facilities, with the capacity to offer courses for more than 10,000 trainees per year.
AATC began operations in April 2015 and prior to the opening of the new centre has been offering courses out of temporary facilities at the SIA Training Centre near Changi Airport. All operations are gradually being transferred to the new centre, located at Seletar Aerospace Park. Instructors have initially been drawn from Airbus and Singapore Airlines, with additional recruitment ongoing. Employees are expected to grow to 50 instructors and 20 support staff by 2019.
Seventeen airlines from Asia and the Pacific have already signed up to use the services of AATC, where the courses offered are identical to those at the existing Airbus flight crew training centres.
Airbus predicts that the active flight crew population employed by airlines in the Asia-Pacific region will increase from over 65,000 to almost 170,000 over the next two decades, generating significant demand for flight crew training services.