Singapore Airlines (SIA) and training company CAE have established a pilot training joint-venture focusing on Boeing aircraft.
The facility will offer initial type rating and recurrent training programs for Boeing 737 MAX, 747, 777 and 787 aircraft types and be based at the Singapore Airlines Training Centre near Changi Airport, the two companies said in a joint statement on Friday.
“With the SIA Group expanding its fleet to drive additional growth, the joint venture will help keep pace with our own training requirements as well as those of other airlines in the region,” SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong said.
“This investment with CAE, one of the world’s leading civil aviation training organisations, is also in line with our push to drive revenue-generation from new adjacent businesses.”
The pair are 50:50 owners in the JV, with the facility expected to be up and running by the end of 2017.
SIA operates Boeing 777-300/300ERs, 777-200/200ERs and 747 freighters, while its regional wing Silkair flies 737-800s and is expecting to take delivery of its first 737 MAXs later in 2017. Meanwhile, SIA’s low-cost arm Scoot has a growing fleet of 787-8/9s serving medium and long haul routes.
CAE chief executive Marc Parent noted the Asia Pacific region was one of the fastest growing markets in commercial aviation.
“This new joint venture will deliver best-in-class training, and will be an asset in supporting the growth of Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s premier carriers,” Parent said.
“CAE is dedicated to offering customers the most innovative training solutions to achieve the highest levels of safety and efficiency.”
It is SIA’s second pilot training JV, having set up the Airbus Asia Training Centre at a new 9,250sq m site at Singapore’s Seletar Aerospace Park that was officially opened in April 2016.
The Airbus Asia Training Centre featured A380, A350, A330 and A320 simulators, with Qantas and Virgin Australia among its airline customers.
Airbus and Singapore Airlines are 55:45 per cent partners in the US$100 million joint-venture. It was the first time Airbus has teamed with an airline for a pilot training centre.
The most recent forecast from Boeing showed the aviation sector would need 637,000 new commercial airline pilots between now and 2036.
(Read more about pilot training in the August issue of Australian Aviation, on sale now.)
