European Airline Training Symposium (EATS), Berlin | October 29, 2019–Volotea, the Barcelona-based airline, has chosen Airbus to train all its pilots following the signature of an exclusive five-year contract. The training, which will commence in January 2020, includes Type-Rating* as well as long-term Recurrent** training linked to Volotea’s growing fleet of Airbus A319s – which will exceed 50 aircraft in 2023. The organization of the training plan is currently on-going, paving the way for the ‘go-live’ next year.

Volotea’s trainees will benefit from long-term use of Airbus’ full-flight simulators – located throughout Airbus’ Training Centre Network – and will be taught by a pool of expert pilot instructors, drawn from both Airbus and Volotea. The flexible training scheme will benefit from the cross-fertilization of both Volotea’s and Airbus’ respective expertise and standards. To this end, the airline is initially inducting four of its pilot instructors into Airbus’ training regime, while in parallel, Airbus is aligning around 20 of its own instructors in collaboration with Volotea’s operational requirements. As the airline progressively expands its A319 fleet, the size of the joint instructor pool is expected to commensurably increase. Volotea has selected the Airbus A319 as the model for its planned fleet expansion.

Airbus Services provides state-of-the-art training solutions to ensure safe, reliable and economically-efficient operations on all Airbus aircraft throughout their lifecycle. Airbus is on-hand to offer support every step of the way. A comprehensive and tailored training portfolio is designed and developed by Airbus for airline pilots, cadets, cabin crews, performance & operations engineers, maintenance personnel and structure & repair specialists.

 

· ViaSat Gains Connected Aircraft Software, Wireless In-flight Entertainment, Mobile Applications and Airline Document Management Expertise
· Arconics Brings A Complementary Set of Existing Commercial Airline Customers, Including Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Among Others
Carlsbad, CA and Dublin, Ireland | November 14, 2016– ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global broadband services and technology company, today announced it acquired Arconics, an innovative provider of software solutions to the aviation industry. Through this acquisition ViaSat gains broader expertise, aviation-grade software and mobile applications to make flying safer and more efficient for pilots, cabin crews and flight operations teams as well as applications that make entertaining passengers and opening new service and revenue opportunities for airlines possible.

The Arconics connected aircraft software platform enables the Arconics App Suite, which spans wireless In-flight Entertainment (IFE), Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), Airline Document Management and Cabin Management solutions, to communicate and share data with the aircraft and, using available connectivity, to connect with ground systems across mobile or avionics platforms. Today, tens of thousands of pilots, ground staff and cabin crew members across five continents depend on Arconics software to safely and efficiently operate their fleets. Airline customers include: Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Philippine Airlines, Tigerair Australia, SpiceJet and others.

“By acquiring Arconics, we are bolstering our ability to serve the global aviation market,” said Don Buchman, vice president and general manager, Commercial Mobility business, ViaSat. “We believe combining our strengths with Arconics will position ViaSat to be the market leader for connectivity, passenger services and flight deck applications and operations.”

Prior to the acquisition, Arconics had a partnership with ViaSat, primarily focused on serving the wireless IFE needs of multiple airline customers. Post-acquisition, ViaSat expects to also offer airlines real-time insight, control and agility of aircraft and flight data with highly-integrated, highly-customizable aircraft operations tools that tap into the power of ViaSat’s advanced high capacity Ka-band satellite network, which has more capacity in orbit than any other in-flight WiFi provider.

“ViaSat offers Arconics a strategic match – both culturally and technologically,” said Arconics Chief Executive Officer Niall O’Sullivan. “We know ViaSat well, having partnered with them on a number of opportunities to deliver our world-class CloudStore wireless IFE product. Together, we believe the complementary nature of the technologies and products of Arconics and ViaSat will enhance the combined company’s ability to deliver exceptional end-to-end experiences across the entire aircraft value-chain.”

In connection with the acquisition, ViaSat establishes a presence in Dublin, Ireland, and will continue to build its operations in Sydney, Australia. More than 30 Arconics team members with both technical and business expertise will join ViaSat, including Niall O’Sullivan. IBI Corporate Finance advised Arconics on the transaction. The transaction is not expected to materially affect ViaSat non-GAAP (pro forma) earnings for fiscal year 2017. However, ViaSat has not completed its valuation analysis and, accordingly, has not determined the impact to GAAP earnings.

• 20 year demand for cabin crew tops 800,000

Oshkosh, Wisconsin | July 25, 2016– Boeing (NYSE: BA) released its 2016 Pilot and Technician Outlook today at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and projects a demand for nearly 1.5 million pilots and technicians over the next 20 years.

In its seventh year, the outlook is a respected industry study which forecasts the 20 year demand for crews to support the world’s growing commercial airplane fleet. New this year is a look at cabin crew demand.

Boeing forecasts that between 2016 and 2035, the world’s commercial aviation industry will require approximately:

617,000 new commercial airline pilots
679,000 new commercial airline maintenance technicians
814,000 new cabin crew
The 2016 outlook shows a growth of 10.5 percent for pilots over the 2015 outlook and 11.3 percent for maintenance technicians. New pilot demand is primarily driven by new airplane deliveries and fleet mix, while new technician demand is primarily driven by fleet growth.

“The Pilot and Technician Outlook has become a resource for the industry to determine demand for successful airline operations” said Sherry Carbary, vice president, Boeing Flight Services. “Cabin crew are an integral part of operating an airline, and while Boeing does not train cabin crew like pilots and technicians, we believe the industry can use these numbers for planning purposes.”

The outlook represents a global requirement for about 31,000 new pilots, 35,000 new technicians and 40,000 cabin crew annually. Projected demand for new pilots, technicians and cabin crew by global region for the next 20 years is approximately:

The Asia-Pacific region comprises 40 percent of the global need due to the growth in the single-aisle market which is driven by low-cost carriers, whileNorth America is the result of new markets opening in Cuba and Mexico, and demand in Europe has increased as a response to a strong intra-European Union market.