Air China's - Orient Aviation

MAIN STORYFilippo Bagnato, chief executiveof European planemakerAvions de Transport Regional(ATR) was jumping for joy onMarch 30 at the firm’s Toulousemanufacturing plant. Little wonder. He hadjust handed over the first of 35 ATR 72-500s– a US$620 million order – to Indian liquorbaron Vijay Mallya, owner of fast expanding,Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines.But it wasn’t simply the order book thatcheered Bagnato.There was the bonus of two state-of-thearttraining centres, one in Mumbai and onein Bangalore, to dramatically increase pilottraining facilities for Kingfisher and otherIndian carriers. The centres are to be set upas joint ventures: one with Kingfisher andone with Air Deccan.The ATR venture is just one of an arrayof training projects planned for the next fewyears to help ease India’s critical shortage ofaviation professionals.After clinching a 68-aircraft orderfrom Air India worth $1.8 billion, Boeingannounced it would invest another $185million in facilities, including a $75 millionTraining moneypouring into Indiapilot training centre. This will involve itssimulator training subsidiary Alteon.Boeing also has committed to investingmoney into ab initio flying training schoolsand to setting up a $100 million maintenance,repair and overhaul (MRO) centre.Airbus, which recently sold $2.5 billionworth of planes to Indian (formerly IndianAirlines), will also facilitate the establishingof a $100 million MRO unit in the country.Of the 35 simulators sold last year byfirms such as Canada’s CAE and Thales,Asian customers accounted for 16 of them.Senior CAE executives confirmed thecompany is looking at the possibility ofopening a training centre in India.British-Singaporean-Hong Kong jointventure, Alpha Aviation Group, will besetting up three of its nine planned trainingcentres across Asia in India.Both government-owned Air Indiaand Indian have simulator centres, but JetAirways is the only private carrier with afull-flight simulator – for the B737-800.This will soon change. Kingfisher’sMallya, who has ordered $3 billion of jetsfrom Airbus, including five A380s, has saidhe is planning to open Kingfisher AviationUniversity by the middle of next year – eitherin Mumbai or Bangalore – to train pilots, flightattendants and maintenance engineers.Air Deccan said it is planning to order twoA320 simulators from CAE and open its owncentre early in 2007 near Bangalore.Air India also is planning expansion. Thecarrier is considering establishing its ownaviation academy near Mumbai in a jointventure partnership with Boeing. 24 ORIENT AVIATION MAY 2006