The Airbus Customer Services Training Center, one of three major training centers of Airbus worldwide, has reached a new milestone recently with the number of trainees passing the mark of 10,000.

Since the center opened in October 1997, it has provided training for customers from more than 30 airlines worldwide. The total number of registered trainees includes more than 4,800 Chinese pilots and 2,000-plus foreign pilots. On the maintenance side, there were more than 1,400 Chinese maintenance engineers and over 290 foreign engineers. Additionally, over 1,500 cabin attendants have also been trained. Of the total, over 60 percent were Chinese trainees.

The milestone was reached with the arrival of Liu Yongtao and Yang Hui, who are pilots from the Sichuan Airlines, one of the eight operators of Airbus aircraft in China. The Sichuan Airlines in Chengdu became the first Chinese A320 operator in December 1995.It now has 10 A320s and 4 A321s and one A319.

In Beijing, the Airbus-Customer Services Training Center close to the Beijing Capital Airport, was established together with the Airbus-Customer Services Support Center. This has been the first and most modern combined training and customer support facility in China. It has been jointly established between the China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Group Corporation and Airbus, involving an 80 million US dollars investment in China by Airbus. The center has won praises and appreciation from both the Chinese government and airlines customers.

The Beijing training center is part of an Airbus global training and support network, dedicated to providing Airbus aircraft operators with training and support around the clock throughout the year. The Airbus-Customer Services Training & Support Center comprises three separate buildings for training, spare parts servicing and offices, with a total space of 40,000 square meters.

The 8,200-square-metre training center, the largest floor space of all the three buildings, is equipped with two full flight simulators, one for the single-aisle A320 Family and the other for the long range A330/A340. The simulators have been approved by many civil aviation authorities, such as the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) and aviation authority of France. The visual scenes are able to simulate various environments including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other major airports in the world. Each simulator is able to provide 5,000 hours per year for flight crew transition and recurrent training as well as training for maintenance engineers. A third simulator bay has also been reserved for future expansion.

The training center is able to provide customized training for flight crews, mechanics, operation engineers, as well as cabin crews. The training team includes ground instructors, simulator instructors, pilot instructors, maintenance instructors, performance instructors and cabin instructors.

In China, Airbus designates for all operators, customer support managers and representatives, as well as a pool of pilots, who regularly visit the airlines to ensure the perfect performance of Airbus aircraft and provide operational analysis. Meanwhile, Airbus has maintenance experts reviewing maintenance and engineering processes and practices with airlines customers in order to optimize the operation of the aircraft, maintenance repairs and saving costs, said Airbus China Vice President Customer Services Jean-Hugues Depigny.

Airbus's business in China has been steadily expanding since it first entered the country in 1985. The Airbus fleet in service in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao has grown to more than 260 today from just 29 in 1995. Airbus is a leading aircraft manufacturer with the most modern and comprehensive family of airliners on the market.

Source: Xinhua