Lufthansa Flight Training

On 9 September 2010, Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT) and the Bundeswehr celebrated half a century of successful cooperation in the training of pilots for military transport aircraft in the German Air Force and Navy at the Lufthansa Pilot School in Bremen.

It all began on 1 August 1960 with the first 15 trainee pilots from the Bundeswehr. In the meantime, 1,400 Bundeswehr pilots have passed through the ranks of the Pilot School and acquired their pilot's licenses in Bremen. The Pilot School's 100th Bundeswehr course is currently under way.

"The Bundeswehr is more to us than an important and valuable customer and partner, it is also an integral part of the Lufthansa Pilot School's tradition and history," stresses Captain Dirk Kröger, Head of the Lufthansa Pilot School. "During the past half century, Lufthansa has repeatedly introduced new training aircraft to its programme and fundamentally revamped its training concepts - and the Bundeswehr has always accompanied us as we took these major steps in the development of ab initio training."
The fact that half a century of pilot training represents a very long period was reflected not only in the large number of former flight instructors and trainee pilots present among the guests at the celebrations in Bremen, but also by the presence of all seven former and current training aircrafts.

"Half a century ago we trained on the single-engine Piaggio P149, today our trainee pilots train on a combination of propeller and jet aircraft with state-of-the-art training technology," summed up General Aarne Kreuzinger-Janik, Chief of Staff of the German Air Force. "During the course of these developments and the exchange between military and civilian aviation, Lufthansa Flight Training and the Bundeswehr have learnt many things from each other."

The foundations for future cooperation between LFT and the Bundeswehr have already been laid with the introduction of the new A400M military transport aircraft, a move that will create additional demand for qualified pilots in the Bundeswehr.
Since this year, transport aircraft pilots can also acquire a civilian pilot's licence at the same time as their military pilot's licence, which makes it necessary to also consistently implement JAR FCL in the training of Bundeswehr pilots. General Kreuzinger-Janik stated that in order to master this challenge, the Bundeswehr was going to have to work even closer together with the Lufthansa Pilot School in Bremen.

9/21/10

Training of airberlin pilots will continue at Lufthansa Flight Training

The airberlin Group is continuing to entrust the training of its cockpit crews to Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT). The airline has extended its partnership agreement with LFT and will thus have its pilots trained exclusively on LFT flight simulators until at least the end of 2015.

Training involves the use of simulators for the following aircraft types: Airbus A320, A330, Boeing 737NG and Bombardier Dash-8 Q400. Most of the required simulator training takes place at airberlin's preferred base at Berlin Schönefeld. Airberlin currently operates a fleet of 165 aircraft.

"Airberlin has been a highly valued customer of LFT since 1997," reports Frank Berweger, Vice President Sales and Marketing at Lufthansa Flight Training. "We are delighted that our training partnership has developed hand in hand with the rapid growth of airberlin and that we have again succeeded in optimally adapting our service portfolio to the needs of this important customer."

"The simulator training at LFT is a key component of our pilot training and ensures that cockpit crews are trained to the latest standards," says Ralf Nagel, Corporate Director Training at airberlin. "The extension of the contract until 2015 will also give us greater planning security and control over our costs."

However, airberlin is not the only carrier to take advantage of the excellent facilities for efficient, high-quality training at its home base. A large number of other renowned European carriers and flight schools use LFT's simulators in Berlin. At this location, Lufthansa Flight Training focuses specifically on the training needs of regional airlines and has enlarged its portfolio with the addition of full-flight simulators for the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet. Since 1 July 2010, the former CityLine Canadair Simulator und Training (CCST) has been integrated into Lufthansa Flight Training.

9/2/10