On January 28 2018, the Queensland government said Ansett Aviation Training had chosen Brisbane Airport as the base for its new training centre which will have three flight simulators.
In addition to the ATR 72-600, Queensland Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick said Ansett Aviation Training would also have a Fokker 100 and Dash 8 simulator at Brisbane Airport. In total, the facility had the capacity to train about 2,000 pilots a year.
“This gives Queensland training capability for three of the world’s most popular medium aircraft in the growing Asia-Pacific region, and a lure to attract pilots from near and far to choose Brisbane to skill up on state-of-the-art equipment to fly these sought-after planes,” the Minister said in a statement.
“In addition to the eight highly-specialised jobs created at the training facility, pilots visiting for training will also make a significant contribution to the hospitality, tourism, retail and hotel industries, benefiting the entire Queensland economy.”
Minister Dick said the State Government’s Advance Queensland Industry Attraction Fund had helped secure the new Ansett Aviation Training facility.
Brisbane will be Ansett Aviation Training’s second site in Queensland. It also has a King Air 350i convertible to a B200 full flight simulator at Sunshine Coast Airport.
And in addition to its Melbourne headquarters, the company also has training centres in Taiwan and Italy.
“Our customers have long asked for us to operate additional simulators in other Australian cities outside of Melbourne and, with the Queensland Government’s assistance, we are looking forward to our new facility opening in 2018,” Ansett Aviation Training chief executive David Garside said in a statement.
“I am especially pleased that our second ATR simulator, which will be ready for training in November this year, is being placed in Brisbane as this is closer to all of our customers who will use it.
“This is the second ATR device that Ansett has purchased and we are sure that Ansett’s long history and expertise in operating simulators will be beneficial for all airlines using ATR aircraft.”
ATR operators in this part of the world include Air New Zealand, PNG Air and Virgin Australia.
Looking further afield, carriers in Indonesia (Garuda Indonesia and Wings Air) and Malaysia (Firefly and Malindo Air), the Philippines (Cebu Pacific) and Thailand (Bangkok Airways) also fly ATR aircraft.
Meanwhile, Brisbane looks set to have a second ATR 72-600 full flight simulator in 2019.
In December 2017, Southern Pacific Flight Training said it had purchased an ATR 72-600 full flight simulator from AXIS Flight Training Systems.
The simulator, certified to Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Level D FFS standards, would be delivered to the Brisbane-based company by January 2019, AXIS said at the time.
Southern Pacific Flight Training chief executive David Cohen noted the ATR 72-600 was a popular aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region for short-haul regional and inter-island flights.
“AXIS’ simulator will enable us to fulfil the training needs of multiple airline customers we have signed in region,” Cohen said.
“Additionally, as the aviation industry in the region continues to grow it will help us address the ever-increasing demand to train more pilots.”
In other ATR news, ATR said on Tuesday (European time) it would add a second ATR 72-600 full flight simulator, manufactured by CAE, at its Toulouse headquarters.
The full flight simulator would be operational by July 2018 and be certified by both the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration.
“The gradual extension of ATR’s training capacity is our key contribution to solving the global pilot shortage,” ATR senior vice-president for programs and customer services Tom Anderson said in a statement.
“We are committed to support our customers’ and operators’ forthcoming expansion plans, and will continue to add training capacity, as global demand requires it, for us to remain the regional leader worldwide.”
ATR, which has training centres in Johannesburg, Miami, Paris, Toulouse and Singapore, reported a tripling of aircraft orders in calendar 2017, compared with the prior year.
