Page 24 - AAA OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019 Online Magazine

[ FLIGHT TRAINING ]

In Robust Health

2019 WAS ANOTHER GOOD YEAR FOR MAJOR
PLAYERS IN THE CIVIL AVIATION FLIGHT
TRAINING AND SIMULATION MARKET

Arun Sivasankaran

The civil aviation flight training and simulation market witnessed
healthy growth in 2019, spurred by operators scrambling to pro-
duce quality pilots and the need for cost-cutting in pilot training.
Major players consolidated their position, with some exploring
new markets.
With technological advancements in the field of flight simulators
making synthetic training more realistic than ever before and pro-
viding real life-like experience to pilots, industry experts predict
the demand for such devices to increase in the future. With the
market primed for sustained growth, it is not a coincidence that the
industry has seen a sharp increase in the money being invested in
research and development, with companies vying with each other
to introduce new products and garner deals.
According to a forecast by Grand View Research (GVR), an U.S. According to industry experts, the growth of
based market research and consulting company, the global flight the flight simulators market will be strongest in
simulators market will reach US$5.62 billion by 2024, spurred by the Asia Pacific region, followed by the Middle
an increase in air traffic and the need for trained pilots. There are East and Africa.
currently about 1,400 devices that simulate commercial airliners
in use around the world, an increase of about 80 from 2018. More Maintaining its Lead
than one third of the synthetic training devices are in North America, Montreal-based CAE, which had a near-mo-
with simulators of Boeing aircraft types accounting for 45% of all nopoly control of airline FFS for more than a
such equipment in the world. According to GVR, FFS products, decade and accounted for more than 40%
which accounted for over 85 percent of the total revenue in 2015, is of the global market in 2015, still remains the
expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4% until 2024. Manufacturing market leader among Level D FFS simulator
costs as well as operation and maintenance costs of flight simula- manufacturers. The company has provided
tors continue to be on the high side, but the many advantages of more than fifty percent of the commercial
such devices – it saves fuel, extends the life of aircraft and engines, simulators currently in service and also has a
and allows training in conditions such as severe thunderstorms healthy 15 percent share of training operations
and system failures - will ensure enough activity to keep all the in different parts of the world.
major players busy for the foreseeable future, industry experts say. In March this year, CAE completed a
Although North America currently has the largest market share US$645 million purchase of Bombardier’s
of flight simulators, it may not hold on to the position for long. Business Aviation Training arm, thus adding
Companies are targeting the Asia Pacific region as well as other 12 FFS, in Dallas and Montreal, to its train-
growing markets such as Latin America and the Middle East. ing network. The company currently has 29

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