CAE's Vienna training centre, scheduled to open in Q2 2025, will be home to up to nine full-flight simulators (FFS), including for Embraer Phenom and Bombardier Challenger 3500 aircraft, as well as the Bombardier Global 6000 Vision and 7500 announced last year. CAE will also be offering maintenance training in Vienna, Austria.

According to CAE's 2023 Aviation Talent Forecast, more than 8,000 business aviation pilots and 10,000 private jet maintenance technicians will need to be recruited and trained in Europe by 2032. CAE's European growth is aiming to address the increased demand for highly skilled aviation professionals in Europe.

The new Central European training centre will add capacity and complement the pilot and maintenance technician training delivered at CAE Burgess Hill in the UK and fulfils CAE's goal of building facilities closer to customers to make training more accessible and efficient. Like all CAE training centres worldwide, CAE Vienna will offer all phases of classroom and simulator training for established pilots to earn their type-rating and complete recurrent training for differing authorities.

"We plan to add a Challenger 3500 and Phenom FFS in Vienna to address the high demand in Europe for pilots rated on these aircraft," says Alexandre Prévost, CAE's division president, business aviation. "We are seeing great interest for Bombardier Global 6000 Vision and 7500 training, and the Global 7500 full-flight simulator will be the first one in Europe providing access to training for this aircraft."

CAE's comprehensive maintenance technician training is offered on aircraft from OEMs including Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and more.

The Phenom simulator destined for Vienna is part of a joint venture between CAE and Embraer, called Embraer CAE Training Services, which includes seven Phenom FFS, the latest of which entered operation at CAE Burgess Hill in March.

CAE forecasts an 18 per cent growth in the world's business aviation fleet between 2023 and 2032, with up to 26,000 business jets in service and the need for more than 100,000 new business aviation professionals to be recruited. With retirements and attrition, coupled with the industry's growth, the need to train business aviation professionals effectively and quickly is real.

CAE has responded to the projected demand by rapidly expanding its training footprint globally. In the past 13 months alone, for business aviation training, the company has inaugurated its first North American West Coast training centre in Las Vegas, Nevada, opened a new training centre in Savannah, Georgia, and broken ground on the new Vienna training centre.

"We've also been investing in the development of innovative solutions to make training more effective while enhancing safety," adds Prévost. "For instance, CAE Rise uses metrics-based insights and telemetry data to better inform instructors during the grading process so they can focus on a pilot's soft skills to better assess their overall performance, while at the same time allowing us to proactively detect and ultimately address emerging safety trends in the industry. Instructors can use the data during their debrief and show trainees how they performed a particular manoeuvre."

CAE is continually working to enhance efficiency in its training centres. "The goal is not only to offer a better experience for our clients, but also to train more professionals while maintaining or improving industry and our own standards. We have deployed online learning tools, improved scheduling and curricula, implemented faster registration and check-in processes, and are deploying CAE Connect, an all-in-one portal for business aviation operators to manage their crews' training in one place," he adds.