Today Air Astana commissioned its new Flight Training Centre which may become a regional resource for Central Asia airlines.
As commercial aviation rapidly recovers from the pandemic finding the skilled and experienced professionals to run an airline is holding many carriers back from launching their full capacity. The last few years have shown that in-house recruitment and training is a solid form of insurance to overcome skill shortages, particularly for pilots and cabin crew.
Time to do training in-house
One airline taking the training bit between its teeth is Kazakhstan’s Air Astana, which today officially commissioned a new Flight Training Centre at Astana International Airport. The new state-of-the-art flight training facility is equipped with the latest generation flight simulator from L3Harris and is the first in Central Asia to be certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Photo: Air Astana
While the training center is designed primarily to train Air Astana and FlyArystan pilots, President and CEO of the Air Astana Group, Peter Foster, is already eyeing opportunities beyond Kazakhstan’s borders. Today, he said:
“The opening of Air Astana’s new Flight Training Centre demonstrates a strategic commitment to ensuring the very highest standards of flight personnel performance and also enhance the steady flow of new entrants into Kazakhstan’s air transport industry as it grows in the future. I am confident that the new facility will not only prove to be a highly cost-effective resource for Air Astana but also result in Kazakhstan becoming a regional leader in flight training.”
The facility has an L3Harris RealitySeven full-flight simulator that can simulate up to six levels of motion and, with realistic cockpit sounds, presents a high degree of realism to the pilot. The simulator is calibrated using accumulated flight data, guaranteeing that the aerodynamics, flight control and ground handling characteristics reflect reality.
Photo: Air Astana
The simulator is the first one to enter service with Air Astana and the first to be installed in Kazakhstan. Apart from the training benefits of such a new piece of technology, the flight center also means that pilots who previously undertook training overseas can now achieve their proficiencies at the airline’s main base in Kazakstan. To meet the high demand the training center will operate on a 24/7 basis and is expected to take in more than 500 pilots from the Air Astana Group.
Photo: Embraer
It’s not surprising that the new simulator is facing such a heavy load as the Air Astana Group has close to 50 aircraft in its fleet. According to Planespotters.net, Air Astana has a fleet of 29, including five Airbus A320-200s, 16 A321neos, three Boeing 767-300s and five Embraer E190-E2 jets. The same source lists FlyArystran’s fleet containing 11 Airbus A320-200s and six A320neos.
Not just pilots
Air Astana is also installing a Cabin Emergency Evacuation Trainer (CEET) and a Real Fire Fighting Trainer (RFFT) in the Flight Training Centre, with both to be operational by the end of this year. The CEET creates realistic training solutions for cabin crew to gain proficiency in door operations for various aircraft types, fire and smoke training, emergency procedures and equipment and cabin crew communications.
A Real Fire Fighting Trainer is an automatic computerized fire training simulator that provides training with real fire and has artificial smoke for training scenarios, generating realism in training exercises. The design can be customized and is based on an actual aircraft layout, with an Instructor Operator Panel controlling all the different fire scenarios, smoke, lights and other inputs.
Source: Simple Flying
