CAE announced the signature of an exclusive long-term Airbus A330 and A350 pilot training contract with Virgin Atlantic Airways, the British airline headquartered in Crawley, close to London, United Kingdom.

Under the terms of the 10-year agreement, Virgin Atlantic’s pilots will receive Airbus A330 and A350 training at CAE’s training centre in London Gatwick, equipped with new CAE 7000XR full-flight simulators, starting in the first half of 2019.

The contract also includes the deployment of one Airbus A350 flight training device (FTD), to be delivered to Virgin Atlantic’s training center “The Base” in Crawley. The CAE 500XR Series FTD will be ready for training by the end of 2018.

“CAE has been a tremendous partner for the past 12 years, providing high-quality training equipment for our pilots to train on, and consistently delivering an outstanding training experience,” said Phil Maher, Executive Vice President, Operations at Virgin Atlantic.

“We are delighted to have right here in Crawley, close to our headquarters, the global leader in commercial aviation training. We look forward to building on our training journey together long into the future.”

“We are proud to serve our longstanding airline partner Virgin Atlantic and to support its growing pilot training needs,” said Nick Leontidis, CAE’s Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions.

“With about 50,000 new airline pilots needed in the region over the next 10 years, CAE remains committed to providing innovative training solutions to its customers to meet this increasing demand.”

CAE has been Virgin Atlantic’s training partner for more than a decade. The airline’s pilots have been training at CAE on Airbus A330, A340 and Boeing 747 aircraft platforms since 2005.