New Simulator Center in Vienna
April 14, 2005
Construction of new Simulator Center in Vienna marks birth of Vienna Aviation Campus
Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT) and the Austrian Airlines Group have decided to intensify their collaboration in the field of cockpit and cabin training. LFT will be constructing a new simulator center for pilot training on the site of the Technical Base of the Austrian Airlines Group at Vienna Schwechat Airport. Together with the existing safety and service center of the Austrian Airlines Group, which serves the training of cabin attendants and pilots, this will result in the creation of a skills and training center in Vienna for the entire inflight personnel of the Austrian Airlines Group. The new center will be entitled the Vienna Aviation Campus.
LFT simulator center on the Vienna Aviation Campus
Construction of the LFT simulator center is scheduled to begin in July 2005. An appropriate LFT subsidiary subject to Austrian law is to be founded, and is now trading under the name Lufthansa Flight Training Vienna. The center will initially provide space for four flight simulators. In addition to these, the site will feature a flight navigation procedure trainer (a cockpit mock-up for the cost-effective practice of cockpit procedures), an administrative building and working space for the simulator technicians. The building plans and land are laid out in such a way that when required the center can eventually be extended to house up to eight full flight simulators.

Initially, an Airbus A320 simulator and one other piece of training equipment, which simulates a sample of the Austrian Airlines Group fleet, will be stationed in Vienna. The Lufthansa Flight Training simulator center is scheduled to enter into operation in the second quarter of 2006, with both remaining sites due to be equipped with flight simulators in the coming two to three years.

In total, Lufthansa Flight Training is investing over EUR 35 million in the Vienna location, with training equipment worth over EUR 7 million due to be stationed at the Vienna Aviation Campus as early as mid-2006. The construction costs for the first stage of the simulator center will run to around EUR 9 million. "We were extremely happy to have this opportunity to invest in Vienna", commented Dieter Harms, Chief Executive of the Board of Management of Lufthansa Flight Training. "When we come to Vienna, we will be bringing our training skills to one of our most important customers, with which we have a truly outstanding partnership." The Austrian Airlines Group will be assigned the status of a "Preferred Customer", as a result of which it will be able to access an exclusively reserved allotment of simulator hours. In return, Austrian will handle all its simulator training for the appropriate aircraft type through LFT.
360° training for cockpit and cabin personnel
"The commitment in Vienna corresponds entirely to our strategy of encouraging above-average growth in our domestic market of Europe" continues Dieter Harms. "Above all, we have the growth markets of Central and Eastern Europe in our sights. Together with the training facilities of Austrian Airlines, we will put ourselves in a position to offer airlines from the region 360° training in Vienna and to train their entire cockpit and cabin personnel. We view Vienna Schwechat Airport as the perfect hub for this orientation towards Eastern Europe."

In this way, Lufthansa Flight Training is continuing to pursue its strategic aim of generating a sustained profit on the open market, i.e. outside the confines of the Lufthansa Group. LFT already produces around half its turnover in the field of cockpit simulators on the open market. Dieter Harms summarised "We're looking forward to using the new location in Vienna and to our collaboration with the Austrian Airlines Group. We are inclined to see the Vienna Aviation Campus as a prototype for future projects."
Simulator training sessions of Austrian pilots
The training of cabin attendants is provided in the form of emergency, service and safety sessions on the existing facilities of the Austrian Airlines Group in Vienna. The simulator training sessions of the approximately 700 Austrian pilots, however, currently take place at the simulator centres of third companies around the world. This arrangement generates extra costs not only for the usage of the flight simulator but also in the shape of travel costs such as the accommodation, daily food allowances and ticket costs of both trainee and trainer.

When its type rating courses, annually prescribed recurrent trainings, training upgrades to Captain level and other training sessions are taken into account, Austrian Airlines clearly requires a huge amount of simulator hours. The Airbus A320 alone, of which the Austrian Airlines Group currently uses 18 in its fleet, requires between 2,500 and 3,000 simulator hours per annum. The new option to hold simulator training sessions direct at its base in Vienna from 2006 onwards will enable Austrian Airlines to reduce the cost of simulator training on this fleet by around 30 %.

As Dr. Walter Bock explained for the Austrian Airlines Group at the presentation of the new project: "The bundling of the flight operations skills of Lufthansa Flight Training and Austrian will produce a major benefit due to the lasting reduction in average annual simulator costs incurred by the company. In addition to this, the marketing of the Vienna Aviation Campus overall by Lufthansa Flight Training will enable us to generate extra income from the rental of our training facilities. Last but not least, the scheme will enable us to contribute to the upgrading of Vienna as a location in the field of aviation skills training."

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