SIA, Airbus officially launch new flight training centre at Seletar

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) and Airbus officially launched on Monday the Airbus Asia Training Centre at Seletar Aerospace Park, which aims to capitalise on the growing demand for flight crew training services.

The 9,250-square-metre facility in Singapore is the fourth Airbus flight crew training centre worldwide, after Toulouse, Miami and Beijing. The centre is a joint venture 55 per cent owned by Airbus and 45 per cent owned by SIA.

The new centre offers type rating and recurrent training courses for all in-production Airbus types and, when fully operational, will be Airbus's 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.

Seventeen airlines from Asia and the Pacific have already signed up to use the centre's services.

Airbus has forecast that the in-service fleet in the Asia-Pacific will grow from around 5,600 aircraft today to 14,000 over the next two decades.

This will see the active flight crew population employed by airlines in the region swell from over 65,000 to almost 170,000, translating to a strong demand for flight crew training services.