Airbus training facility established at New Delhi

Airbus is setting up a greenfield training facility at Aerocity near the International Airport of New Delhi “to support India’s growing need for Airbus aircraft pilots and maintenance engineers”. The ground-breaking for the Airbus India Training Centre was performed by P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister of Civil Aviation and Tom Enders, CEO, Airbus in the presence of Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation on 17 March.

India is the fastest growing domestic aviation market in the world and is expected to continue to grow at an annualised 9.3 per cent over the next 20 years. To support this huge demand, Airbus forecasts a requirement for at least 1,600 new passenger and freighter aircraft by 2035, the consequent increase in Indian in-service aircraft fleet requiring over 24,000 new pilots and maintenance engineers. The 7000 m2 Airbus India Training Centre will be operational by end-2018 with two A320 full flight simulators, increasing to four and potentially to six simulators as required. It will start with an initial capacity to train over 800 pilots and 200 maintenance engineers annually, and will cater primarily to Airbus operators in India and the region. Airbus has more than 250 aircraft in service in India and over 570 more are on order by Indian airlines.

In photo above are seen P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister of Civil Aviation and Tom Enders, CEO, Airbus unveiling the Airbus India Training Centre model.