Qantas has marked the beginning of construction on its new multi-million-dollar flight-training centre in Sydney, expected to open early next year.
The facility will train up to 4,500 pilots and cabin crew a year for Qantas and Jetstar with modern training equipment such as aircraft cabin mock-ups and flight-training devices.
Eight full-motion simulators will also be installed in the centre, including one for the Airbus A350, the aircraft that will be carrying out non-stop flights from Sydney to London and New York.
This will allow Sydney-based pilots to utilise simulators in their home city again after Qantas moved its other simulators to Melbourne and Brisbane in 2021, making way for the New South Wales Government’s Sydney Gateway road project.
CEO Alan Joyce attended the ground-breaking ceremony to thank partners and highlight Sydney as the launch city for the company’s non-stop flights.
He said: “Qantas provides training for thousands of pilots and cabin crew each year and this purpose-built facility will ensure our high training standards continue as we introduce the next generation of aircraft, grow our network and create new high-skilled jobs.
“We’ll receive an average of one new aircraft every three weeks for the next three years across the Qantas Group, and more simulator capacity to train new and current pilots is critical.”
A long-term, 20-year agreement with training provider CAE will see the organisation maintain equipment and manage day-to-day operations at the centre whilst Senior Qantas and Jetstar training captains will train attending pilots.
Construction of the training centre is part of Qantas’ wider growth plans that will see the company create over 8,500 highly skilled jobs including 1,600 new pilot positions and 4,500 new cabin crew roles.
The first-of-its-kind Sydney training centre project was developed by LOGOS Property Group, it will span 7000m² over three floors and create roughly 250 jobs through its delivery.
Darren Searle, LOGOS head of Australia and New Zealand, said: “The site provides the ideal location for Qantas’ new training centre, located on the doorstep of Sydney airport in a premium industrial precinct and CAE’s 20-year commitment to the site highlights the unprecedented demand for key industrial sites.”
Qantas’ recent investments into the Australian aviation industry also include a joint effort to develop Australia’s first alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel plant in Queensland, alongside Airbus and the Queensland Government.