The Qantas Group will open a new training centre for pilots and cabin crew of its current and future fleet, the Australian airline said in a statement yesterday. The new facility will be located in St. Peters, a Sydney suburb close to Kingsford Smith International Airport.
According to the company’s plans, it will provide education and training for up to 4.500 crew members of the airline and Jetstar Airways, the low-cost airline subsidiary of Qantas, as of early 2024. The centre, which is yet to be named, will house up to eight full-motion flight simulators (FFS). These include devices for training on Airbus A350 aircraft, which the company ordered last May as part of Project Sunrise, and on the A320neo family.
Facilities will also include fixed flight training devices (FTD), cabin mockups for emergency procedures training and classrooms for theoretical learning.
The project is part of a partnership between Qantas and CAE, one of the world’s largest developers and providers of such solutions. The company will maintain the simulators and manage the day-to-day operations of the centre as part of a long-term partnership.
In 2021, Qantas moved crew training to its Melbourne and Brisbane centres due to a New South Wales government road infrastructure project. The administration has now declared the project to be of state importance and will accelerate its assessment, the company said. As a result, pilots and cabin crew based in Australia’s most populous city will not have to travel for routine trainings and clearances from the opening of the facility.
Sustained recovery and a bet on the future
The announcement comes amid a sustained recovery in the Australian air market and for the country’s largest carrier. Qantas has recently embarked on a fleet renewal process, including an order for twelve Airbus A350-1000s for one of the biggest technical challenges in contemporary aviation: non-stop operations between Sydney and cities such as London and New York. The company will consolidate a fleet comprised mainly of the European manufacturer’s products over the next ten years, during which time it also expects to take delivery of 299 narrow-body aircraft.
“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”, said Alan Joyce, Qantas Group CEO. “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”, he highlighted.
The new training centre will feature Airbus A380, A350, A330, A320, Boeing 787 and 737-800 full-motion simulators (FFS). In addition, it will have fixed flight training devices (FTD) for Airbus A380 and A330, as well as for the Boeing 787.
