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Emirates-CAE Flight Training Centre opens

DUBAI - The new Emirates-CAE Flight Training Centre was officially opened yesterday. The new training centre is the first training facility in the Middle East to be qualified to both JAA and FAA standards.

The centre is the first outside North America to offer pilot and maintenance training for the Hawker 800/800XP and the Gulfstream IV and V full flight simulators, and it will be adding a second Boeing 737NG/BBJ simulator to meet customer demand.

General Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid AI Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and the UAE's Minister of Defence inaugurated the centre. He was accompanied by Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Group; and Derek H. Burney, CAE's president and chief executive officer.

The state-of-the-art facility is the result of an agreement signed in 2001between Emirates and CAE. The 80,000-square-foot building is located next to Dubai International Airport. It is expected to employ more than100 people by mid-2004.

The total investment from both parties is some $100 million under a 10-year agreement. The centre's customers had been training previously at a facility in the Dubai Airport Free Zone.

"Emirates is pleased to be part of this jointly-operated centre which has been at the forefront of the development of aviation training in the Gulf. This facility heralds a new era in aviation in the Middle East as the first flight training centre with dually approved type-rating. Our colleagues in the aviation industry, both within the region and further afield in Europe, Asia and Africa now have convenient access to the world's highest possible training certifications." Shaikh Ahmed said.

"When CAE signed this agreement with Emirates it signified a strategic move for CAE to expand its training network worldwide. Today's ceremony speaks volumes about the success of this venture. Most important is that we are providing greater value to the region's aircraft operators by offering the highest-quality, fully certified, training closer to their home base." Burney added.

The centre, which currently houses five full-flight simulators, can train up to 4,000 pilots annually. Its current commercial and business-jet airline customers include Arabasco, Emirates, Jet Aviation, Kuwait Airways, Middle East Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways and Royal Jet.

The second Boeing 737NG/BBJ simulator will be installed in spring 2004. When the new simulator is in operation, Emirates-CAE Flight Training will offer training on two Boeing 737NGs/BBJs, a convertible Hawker 800/800XP, a Gulfstream IV, a Gulfstream V, an Airbus A330/A340 and an Airbus A319/A320/A321/ACJ. The Gulfstream devices and the second Boeing 737NG/BBJ will have a CAE Sim XXI platform, which is CAE's latest simulator technology designed to simplify assembly, test and integration, and to reduce life-cycle costs.