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Flight school in Brunei by mid next year

|     Danial Norjidi     |

 

WORK is under way for the establishment of a flight school in Brunei, which could begin operation as early as the second half of next year.

This was shared by top officials from CAE, during a recent interview with the Bulletin at the CAE Brunei Multi-Purpose Training Centre (MPTC).

The CAE Brunei MPTC is a world-class training facility that is a joint venture between the Brunei government and CAE, a global leader in the delivery of training for civil aviation, defence and security and healthcare.

While speaking on CAE’s future plans for Brunei, Gene Colabatistto, CAE’s Group President of Defence and Security shared, “The first thing is to just expand the baseline on the aviation side. As part of this, we’re establishing a flight training organisation – a live flight training school here in Brunei,” he said.

“We would do that to satisfy the requirements of the anchor customers in Brunei, but again, we would build it so it could be expanded and have additional capacity so that we can attract other students from around the region to come and train here in Brunei,” he said, noting that this means CAE Brunei MPTC would be offering both live and synthetic training.

He highlighted that CAE runs live flight training schools around the globe, and that they are the largest such operators in the world. “We do that for civil aviation and the military, and we have the infrastructure and the technical knowledge to do that.”

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Gene Colabatistto (L), the Group President of Defence and Security at CAE; and Kevin Speed (R), the Di-rector of CAE Brunei MPTC. - PHOTOS: DANIAL NORJIDI

Gene Colabatistto (L), the Group President of Defence and Security at CAE; and Kevin Speed (R), the Di-rector of CAE Brunei MPTC. – PHOTOS: DANIAL NORJIDI

He also noted CAE’s strong relationship with Piper Aircraft, saying that Piper aircraft are used throughout their schools.

“So, building the infrastructure here is something that is never easy, but we understand exactly what needs to get done and we are establishing the relationships with the customers to understand what the requirements are, not just now but in the next five to 10 years so that the school can be sized appropriately.”

Adding on, Kevin Speed, the Director of CAE Brunei MPTC said, “An important element of our timelines is that we have been working with the core customers that have cadet requirements, in the Ministry of Defence, in Royal Brunei Airline and in Shell. In addition, the Ministry of Education will also fund training cadets.

“So we’re looking at our core customers within Brunei and across the region, but a big part of what we’ve got to do to make the flying school successful here in Brunei is to work with the Ministry of Communications and Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to make sure that all the regulatory requirements are put in place.

“We’ve been getting great support from the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) who are also going to supply us with the infrastructure at the airport, and other infrastructure we’re going to need within Brunei.”

He also highlighted that the Ministry of Communications is helping them, the DCA is supporting them and that they are also getting guidance from their partners at the Ministry of Finance as well, and also from Piper Aircraft.

“Our timeline is driven right now by the regulatory elements that we hope to put in place, but we hope to begin our ground school training and flying training in the second half of the next year.”

Asked on the flight school’s potential use of the airport, he said, “Right now there is only one runway in Brunei. That’s part of the challenge. We plan to host our flying school here at the main airport, and we’re looking at other options within Brunei and the local region, Sabah and Sarawak, to do some of our cross country and other work that we have to do. But, we also have to work on airspace, not just on runways.”

He noted that Brunei was the first to fly a number of aircraft in the region, including the 787, the S-70i Blackhawk and the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter.

“So Brunei is kind of a leader and we think a world class flight school would be the next step in continuing that leadership role.”

Speed also spoke on the flight school’s availability to the general public, saying that it will indeed be open to private customers who want to learn to fly.


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