Qantas Breaks Ground On New Flight Training Center

Qantas Group has officially broken ground on its new Sydney Training Centre, which aims to train up to 4,500 new pilots and crew for Qantas Airways (QF) and its low-cost subsidiary, Jetstar (JQ), from mid-2024.

The purpose-built facility is in St Peters, near Qantas’ most extensive base, Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD). It will be home to up to eight motion simulators, including an Airbus A350 sim destined for ‘Project Sunrise,’ the carrier’s ambitions to fly between Sydney and London or New York non-stop.

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A partnership with CAE

The training center will have modern flight training devices and mock aircraft cabins, including emergency procedure equipment, with multiple classrooms and other training facilities. CAE is poised to maintain the simulators and day-to-day running of the operations. At the same time, senior Jetstar and Qantas training pilots will educate the next wave of recruits destined for the airline’s cockpit.

Qantas Sydney Training centre SYDFTC-render

Photo: Qantas

Due to the Sydney Gateway road project, Sydneysiders must travel to Qantas’ other East Coast training centers in Brisbane or Melbourne. However, from 2024, the new Sydney center will be the main base for the group’s training programs.

Expected to deliver over 250 jobs as part of the build, the center will be more than 7,000 square meters (75,000 sq ft), over three floors, and require 150 tonnes of steel and 4500m3 (95,500 pounds) of concrete.

As pointed out by the flying kangaroo, the Australian aviation industry expects to create 8,500 highly skilled roles in aviation over the next ten years, including positions for 1,600 pilots and 4,500 crew.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Current Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was at the site and released this statement:

“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.

“Sydney will be the launch city for our non-stop flights to London and New York and will soon be the home of pilot training for the A350s, which will operate these flights from late 2025.

“We’d like to thank the NSW Government and the LOGOS Group for its support for this world-class facility, which will generate broader economic benefits for the state.”

Five training centers upon completion

Once the Sydney facility is complete, it will be one of five centers across Australia, including the sites at Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth, plus its Qantas Group Pilot Academy in Toowoomba. In addition to the group’s crew training centers, Qantas plans to build an Engineering Academy at some point. However, its location is not yet to be determined.