Airbus opens Beijing pilot training centre

Airbus Industrie has opened a US$80 million centre in Beijing to train pilots, cabin attendants and mechanics as well as give support to customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Two pilots from China Northwest became the centre's first trainees last week.

A state-of-the-art training building complete with an A330-340 and an A320 family simulator and many computer-aided learning devices can give type-rating training for up to 103 pilots for each aircraft type per year, or recurrent training for 280 pilots for each type.

Priority will be given to airlines from greater China, including the SAR and Macau, according to Francois Mourareau, vice-president of customer services.

The centre's training will mirror that at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse and the North American facility in Miami, but having the centre in the mainland will save huge amounts of time and money for Asia-Pacific carriers.

Alain Guillard, general manager of the training centre, said: 'To send people to Toulouse for three days is extremely expensive for the airline.

'Now all that may be done in Beijing. The crew might leave the airline in the morning, do the training and on the evening of the third day they will be back at the airline.' The centre already is booked to provide simulator time and instructors for China Northwest, Air China, China Southern, Sichuan Airlines, CNAC-Zhejiang Airlines. Dragonair and Air Macau also are committed to using the centre's facilities with their own instructors.