Charting a new course

Forty years after it sold its first aircraft in India, European aircraft maker Airbus wants to be a part of pilot training in the country.

Estimates say that India will require over 24,000 pilots and mechanics (two-third of them pilots and the rest mechanics) in the next 20 years. This is the market that Airbus is hoping to tap into through its first fully owned Airbus Training Centre in Asia that is coming up in Delhi. It already has training centres in Toulouse, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Miami, Mexico, Middle East, Singapore, Djakarta and Korea.

The centre is expected to come up in 2018 with two simulators at an estimated cost of $40 million and it will be able to train 800 pilots and 200 engineers annually. The centre has been so designed that it can accomodate more simulators, if needed.

The centre will consider pilots who have a licence recognised by the authorities for flying turbo prop aircraft in a multi-crew (two pilots) as the typical entry-level for training. It will also have the option of providing recurrent training as every pilot has to go back to the simulator at least twice per year.

“When pilots start they are first officers and after flying for so many years on the right hand seat they need to be trained to become captains. So we will be delivering the upgrade to command course so that they become captains,” says Fabrice Hamel, Vice President, Training Services, Customer Services, Airbus. “Then after a few years the best captains become instructors. In the centre we will have the capacity to do the instructor coursewhich is the last step in the examiner course. We will have the full thing.”

The centre is also looking to tap into flying colleges around the country and help their students become private pilots and earn commercial pilot licences.“The future for us is working very closely with flying colleges to ensure a supply for pilots for the market,” Hamel says.

Hamel clarifies that IndiGo’s facility which is up and running with CAE is not a competition for Airbus. “We are not competing. IndiGo has such a large fleet which is growing that they need space for recurrent training to keep their pilots current.”

Airbus says its training centre has been conceptualised and is now being implemented after listening to its customers, the airlines.

Phee Teik Yeoh, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara,agrees. “As India gears up to become the world’s third-largest aviation market, it is imperative to have adequate world-class training facilities to ensure a steady pipeline of proficient pilots. It will help us tread a path towards industry leadership.”

Vistara has signed a five-year agreement with Airbus Group India to provide training to its pilots for the A320 aircraft.

The focus of the centre is primarily going to be on Indian carriers. Says Hamel, “The idea is to grow the place to cope with the demand in India. At the end of the day, it is the choice of the airline. But most airlines would naturally want their pilots to be trained here because it costs less. The idea is to have it big enough for all the pilots to be trained in the country.”

Airbus is also hoping that the location of the projectwill make it a unique selling proposition for foreign airlines. “It will be very easy for international airlines to come here. As you walk out of Terminal III there is the parking lot and we are just behind it. You can walk to the training centre. At night you can take the shuttle to the hotels in Aerocity so pilots can sleep and then come back in the morning and fly back home,” Hamel says.

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