Montreal-based training provider CAE is to add 16 new business aircraft training programs to its portfolio. The new courses will complete CAE’s coverage of the six largest manufacturers - Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and Hawker Beechcraft.
To be introduced over the next two years, the programs will be located in the USA and elsewhere in CAE’s worldwide network of training centers.
“We don’t plan to go back to the legacy types, so this means we’ll effectively address 100% of the active business aircraft fleet,” CAE’s Jeff Roberts group president for innovation and civil training and services said at the show yesterday .
“We’ll cover everything that’s in any way operationally significant. We’re seeing an increasing percentage of business aircraft orders coming from outside North America, and we continue to seek to support those customers as close as possible to home,” Roberts said.
Recent additions to CAE’s international network include China and Dubai. “Our Zuhai centre in China hasn’t stopped growing since we set it up five years ago,” said Roberts. “Three months ago we added a satellite site near Zuhai and now we’re getting it into commercial operation.”
Very light jets represent a market that has now developed to CAE’s satisfaction. “This is a real segment of business aviation,” said Roberts. “In the past year we have put in a lot of time with Embraer to understand it and design appropriate training. We’re about to formally announce a joint venture – the first simulator will go to Dubai, the second to Burgess Hill in the UK.”
CAE is also the authorized training provider for Bombardier’s Global range and Challenger 300. The company announced here that Global Express simulators had been delivered to Burgess Hill and Dubai, assembly of a Challenger 300 unit was under way, and training programs for the Learjet 40, 40XR, 45 and 45XR were in development.
Source: Flight Daily News
