CAE and Qantas have signed an agreement for a new pilot training centre in Sydney, Australia.
The new centre will be located near Sydney airport and provide training for up to 4,500 new and current Qantas and Jetstar pilots from early 2024, says Qantas.
The centre will be operated by CAE under a 15-year agreement. The centre will have up to eight full motion simulators for four Airbus and two Boeing types covering the A320, A330, A350, A380, 737-800, and 787.
In addition, it will have flight training devices for the A330, A380, and 787.
Neither party disclosed a value for the training centre, but Qantas refers to it as a “multi-million-dollar facility.”
Qantas and Jetstar captains will provide training at the centre, while CAE will maintain the simulators and manage day-to-day operations.
CAE will also provide training for other carriers at the facility. The training provider will deploy a new A320 simulator at the centre, and purchase Qantas’s 737, 787, and A330 full motion simulators.
In 2021, Qantas shifted its simulators to Brisbane and Melbourne to make way for roadworks in Sydney.
“Qantas has trained its pilots and crew in Sydney for more than half a century and we look forward to bringing this critical function back to New South Wales with this custom-built facility,” says Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.
“Sydney will be the launch city for our non-stop flights to London and New York, and will now be the home of pilot training for the A350s, which will operate these flights from 2025. As our international network recovers from the impact of COVID and we grow our fleet, this new training centre will give us the simulator capacity to train our new and current pilots.”
