SINGAPORE: The Airbus-Singapore Airlines partnership has brought on line what is billed as Asia-Pacific's largest flight crew academy to help meet soaring demand for cockpit crew in the region.
The US$100-million facility, which officially opened on Monday, comes against an Airbus projection that the region will need 100,000 more pilots over the next two decades from the current 65,000 to cope with its fast growing air transport movements.
The opening of the Airbus Asia Training Centre (AATC), 55% owned by the European aeroplane maker and 45% by Singapore Airlines, underscores a strategic move by Airbus to support its core aircraft market both now and in the future: Asia-Pacific, which constitutes nearly a third of global business.
When it becomes fully operational in 2019, the 9,250-square-metre facility at Seletar Aerospace Park will be capable of training more than 10,000 people a year.
It is the fourth facility of its kind in the Airbus system after those in Toulouse, Miami and Beijing, though its scale is the largest.
Airbus chief executive Fabrice Bregier, who was at the AATC launch event, said the joint venture represents another commitment "to bring our support services closer to our customers around the world, and especially in the key growth markets".
In its latest projection, Airbus points out that Asia-Pacific's passenger traffic will grow at 5.6% a year, above the global average of 4.6%, between now and 2034.
Asia-Pacific will continue to experience stronger growth than any other region as more people fly more often.
The region's robust passenger traffic growth would contribute to a requirement for some 12,800 new aircraft valued at $2.1 trillion, Airbus senior vice-president Didier Lux said at a briefing.
This represents 40% of global demand for 32,600 aircraft over the next 20 years, and includes almost half of all widebody deliveries worldwide and over a third of all single-aisle aircraft.
Airbus envisages Asia-Pacific's in-service fleet growing from around 5,600 aircraft today to 14,000 over the next two decades.
This will see the active flight crew employed by airlines in the region increase from 65,000 to almost 170,000, thus generating significant demand for flight crew training services.
Over the past 10 years Airbus has recorded the leading share of sales in the Asia-Pacific region in both the single aisle and widebody markets.
This has seen the A320 family account for 64% of net orders in the single-aisle category, while the Airbus widebody aircraft -- the A330, A350 XWB and A380 -- have together won 56% of orders during this time.
Investing in the training centre provides a good opportunity for Singapore Airlines to benefit from the growing demand for crew to support the region's massive aircraft orders, said chief executive Goh Choon Phong.
He described the AATC joint venture as part of the carrier's "transformative strategy to go beyond the core business into adjacent areas".
The new centre offers type rating and recurrent training courses for all in-production Airbus types.
There are three Airbus full-flight simulators operating at AATC, which by 2019 will boast a total of eight full-flight simulators, comprising three A350 XWBs, one A380, two A330s and two A320s, with two additional simulator bays for potential growth.
The academy will also have six fixed cockpit training devices and extensive classroom facilities.
The school currently has 15 instructors, mainly former Singapore Airlines pilots, and by 2019 the pool of instructors will be increased to 50.
Seventeen airlines from Asia-Pacific including Bangkok Airways, Lion Air, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Vietnam Airlines have already signed up to use the services of AATC.
In Thailand, Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong recently indicated that there is a shortfall in the supply of flight crews, with current demand standing at 2,958, against 2,853 in a recent count.
The Civil Aviation Training Centre of Thailand said the country will need 400-500 new pilots each year as replacements and to meet incremental demand.