Monday, February 26, 2018

airBaltic orders training aircraft for Pilot Academy

Latvian national carrier airBaltic has ordered four Diamond Aircraft for its newly established Pilot Academy at airBaltic Training, the company’s representatives informed BC.

Three of the ordered training aircraft are single-engine DA40 NG and one is twin engine DA42-VI plane. The contract includes an option of adding another eleven planes from Diamond. Additionally, airBaltic Training has also ordered Diamond Simulation flight training simulator.

airBaltic representative Alise Briede revealed that the purchase of the first four training aircraft and the flight training simulator would cost over EUR 2 mln. These expenses are part of the more than EUR 5 mln earmarked for the creation of airBaltic Training.

The delivery of the training aircraft is expected to begin in May 2018.

Vilmantas Mazonas, Managing Director of airBalticTraining, said: “Since announcing the establishment of Pilot Academy last December, we have seen tremendous interest from the potential students. We received over 200 applications, from which the first class of 12 students is selected. The theoretical training will begin this March, and in about three months’ time the first class will have the chance to take a seat already on one of the brand-new training aircraft.”

As reported, airBaltic plans to invest more than EUR 5 mln in the Pilot Academy that is based on airBaltic Training. airBaltic Training is the educational subsidiary of airBaltic – the flag carrier of the Baltic states. airBaltic Training was founded in 2010 and has served as an educational stepping stone for hundreds of aviation professionals, so far mostly pilots and cabin crew.

In 2016, airBaltic Training generated EUR 2.993 mln in sales and earned EUR 303,352 in profit.

airBaltic serves over 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these locations, airBaltic offers convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, CIS and the Middle East. In addition, airBaltic also offers direct flights from Tallinn and Vilnius.

Diamond Aircraft is a company providing single and twin-engine aircraft, along with Diamond Simulation flight training devices, and corresponding maintenance and pilot training. The company was established in 1981 in Austria, where its headquarters are still located in.

Original article can be found here ➤ http://www.baltic-course.com

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