Airbus to provide A319 family pilot training for Volotea

Spanish low-cost carrier Volotea has signed an ‘exclusive’ five-year contract with Airbus to provide pilot training for the A319 family.

The training will begin in January next year and includes Type-Rating certification of all of Volotea’s pilots to fly Airbus A319. Pilots will have to undergo additional training.

It will also involve long-term recurrent training, which will mostly be conducted within an airline for professional pilots.

The agreement is a part of Volotea’s plan to increase its fleet of Airbus A319 aircraft. The company is planning to increase its fleet beyond 50 aircraft mark by 2023.

Earlier this year, Volotea revealed plans to expand its fleet with six new Airbus A319. The new aircraft will be added to the existing Airbus 319s and Boeing 717s.

Pilots participating in the training programme will have access to Airbus’ full-flight simulators installed at the manufacturer’s Training Centre Network.

Instructors for the flexible training scheme will include experts from the two companies.

As part of this, Volotea has initially enrolled four pilot instructors into the training programme. Airbus will bring in nearly 20 instructors for the regime.

The number of instructors will increase as the airline’s A319 fleet expands.

In a statement, Airbus said: “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 has a customised suite of training tools, techniques and procedures intended for pilots, cadets, cabin crews and engineers.