Singapore is rapidly becoming the epicenter for civil flight training in Asia. The Competition Commission of Singapore last week approved the proposed joint venture between Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Canadian simulator manufacturer CAE (Stand U87) to offer pilot training for Boeing aircraft types. Two years ago, SIA opened a similar JV with Airbus (Stand J23), the aircraft manufacturer’s largest training center. The recently formed Boeing Global Services (Stand S23) has its own seven-bay simulator facility bordering Changi Airport. And China-based Haite Aviation Training (Stand H75) in 2015 launched a $70-million, 21,000-square-meter (226,000-square-foot) facility at Changi Airport Business Park. CAE also now owns 100 percent of the Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence in Singapore, formerly a JV with AirAsia.
CAE’s “Airline Pilot Demand Outlook,” released last summer, estimates the Asia-Pacific region will need at least 90,000 new pilots in the next decade, more than the 85,000 pilots currently flying in the region. That represents about 35 percent of the 255,000 new pilots required worldwide. CAE’s forecast is based on estimated fleet growth, pilots per aircraft, retirements and attrition. The 25,500 new pilots per year estimate is lower than Boeing’s 31,850, based on 637,000 new pilots across the next 20 years, driven by aircraft fleet expansion of 41,030, and more in line with Airbus’s expected 34,900 new commercial airplanes by 2036.
Perhaps more significant for the region is CAE’s estimated need of 62,000 new captains. “There’s a lead time here. You can’t just have a pilot when you want one,” Nick Leontidis told AIN. Leontidis is CAE Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions. “In Southeast Asia, with a lot of the newer airlines, you tend to have young captains. You cannot be a captain right after you complete your program. You have to accumulate certain hours, you need certain training.”
Leontidis said, “We think the training programs need to be adapted to train captains out of the box. This will allow the airlines to quickly move pilots from the right seat to the left seat when they meet the requirements for that country’s regulator.” The first nine cadets who graduated from CAE’s Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL) program in 2011 with Air Asia took six years to become captains with the airline.
Elsewhere in Asia, CAE sold two 7000XR Boeing 737 full-flight simulators (FFSs) to JEJUair for the CAE Korea training center in Seoul. They deployed an Airbus A320 FFS to Jakarta Aviation Training Centre (JATC), Indonesia. In addition to the Singapore center, CAE also bought out AirAsia’s interests in joint training centers in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, but will remain AirAsia Group's exclusive training partner. Conversely, China Southern Airlines acquired CAE's equity stake in the Zhuhai Flight Training Centre, but will outsource excess training capacity to CAE for third-party training.
CAE has announced “the first commercial offering of its Next Generation Training System strategic initiatives,” a simulator data-driven capability branded as “CAE Rise.” An evolution of sorts of the company’s Simulator Operations Quality Assurance (SOQA) technology, Rise will compare data from flight crew training sessions against ideal criteria for various maneuvers, enabling instructors to focus on human factors analysis. CAE has also purchased 45 percent of the shares of training courseware specialist Pelesys (Stand F67).
Fabrice Hamel, Airbus Vice President of Training Services, told AIN the OEM will open a new A320 flight and maintenance training center this year for VietJetAir in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. “We bring the simulator, we bring instructors, and we bring the same Airbus flight training reference, the same philosophy, the same standard that we deploy in every training center we operate.” Airbus will add an eighth simulator to its Singapore center this year, a third A350, joining two A320 FFSs, two A330s and an A380.
“We see a change in the airlines,” Hamel said. “Airlines want to focus on what they do best, which is to carry passengers. It started with the low-cost carriers; they didn’t really want to be involved in pilot training. But now we see a change in legacy airlines as well. They want to refocus on their core business, and they want to benefit from the experience of the OEM for pilot training.”
L3 (Stand U75) is under contract to provide HNA Group with 11 RealitySeven FFSs for the recently opened Hainan Sky Plumage Training Center in Haikou, China. They have also launched a cadet pilot program in partnership with Hong Kong Airlines through the L3 Airline Academy Training Center in New Zealand. “International pilot training providers like L3 are well positioned to introduce professional aviation infrastructure and training technologies,” said Robin Glover-Faure, who was announced last week as the new President of L3 Commercial Aviation Solutions. “To offer volume solutions for the airlines in the region, L3 is utilizing our own large academies in the UK, New Zealand, Europe and the U.S.”
Textron Aviation’s (Chalet CD11) TRU Simulation + Training has become embedded with both major aircraft manufacturers. As part of a 10-year agreement with Boeing, TRU has deployed 737 MAX FFSs to Boeing’s Singapore and Shanghai, China campuses. They also have purchase orders for two simulators for the 777-9, to be delivered to Singapore and the UK in advance of the aircraft’s entry into service in early 2020.
For Airbus, TRU is providing A320 FFSs for the Singapore center and Hua-Ou Aviation Training Company in Beijing, China. Qantas Airways also recently ordered a 737NG FFS to be delivered in the second quarter this year.
“Half of everything is going into Asia-Pacific at the moment: airplanes, maintenance training, simulators, you name it. It’s a busy part of the world,” said Mark Dransfied, Director of Regulatory Affairs for TRU. “There’s an awful lot of business out there, and there’s clearly room for several suppliers.”
Rockwell Collins (Stand D23) has partnered with Haite High-Tech, a subsidiary of Haite Group, headquartered in Chengdu, China, in a joint venture called ACCEL, delivering a 737 FFS to Haite’s training center in Tianjin, China. Haite also operates training centers in Singapore and Kunming, China. Rockwell’s original JV was with Beijing Bluesky Aviation Technology, part of which was sold to Haite. Nick Scarnato, Director of Strategic Development for Rockwell, said, “We feel the best way to grow internationally is to provide a little differentiation by partnership with local entities rather than just going head-to-head and competing on price.”
In addition to a focus on producing narrowbody aircraft flight simulators, the ACCEL JV is looking at maintenance training opportunities, leveraging one of Haite’s strengths.
French flight training device specialist Alsim (Stand E13) has sold it first AL42 FNPT II in China to AXAviation in Wuhu, Anhui Province. The level 5 device simulates the Diamond DA42-VI. Alsim has also sold an AL250 sim to Orient Flight School in Chennai, India. An AL250 device is available on the Alsim stand for demo "flights" during the Singapore Airshow.
American manufacturer Frasca International (Stand U78) has an order for Piper Seminole and Robinson R44 FTDs, both to China regulatory level 5 standards, from Sichuan Fan-Mei Aviation, Sichuan Province.