CAE’s business aviation training center in Central Europe officially opened this week. Complementing the global aviation training provider’s network of facilities, CAE Vienna offers classroom and simulator training for pilots and maintenance technicians.
Although CAE Vienna has been quietly operational since April, its strategic location adds “critical training capacity in the region and [makes] a broad portfolio of training programs more accessible than ever,” according to Alexandre Prévost, CAE’s business aviation division president.
The 86,000-sq-ft center offers pilot simulator training on four business aircraft types: Gulfstream G550, Bombardier Global 6000 and 7500, and—available as part of the Embraer CAE Training Services (ECTS) joint venture—Embraer Phenom 100/300. Maintenance technician programs, meanwhile, include type training, engine run, taxi courses, and avionics elements.
CAE forecasts that the European business aviation industry will require some 7,000 new pilots and 9,000 maintenance technicians over the next decade. Prévost believes CAE Vienna is “ideally equipped and perfectly located to help meet that demand,” offering capacity to train thousands of aviation professionals annually. Looking to the future, a fifth simulator—for the Bombardier Challenger 3500—will come online in October, while a Pilatus PC-24 simulator will be deployed in the second half of next year.
The training provider added that increased adoption of digital “smart technologies” will help make training “more personalized, seamless and efficient,” simplifying processes such as making bookings or accessing training records.