Qantas Opens Pilot Training Facility at Brisbane Airport

(02 Feb 2022)  Qantas has opened a new pilot training facility at Brisbane Airport.

With the capacity to train up to 900 pilots a year, the Qantas Group Flight Training Centre is home to four aircraft simulators – Boeing 737, 767F and 787 Dreamliner and Dash-8 Q400 – as well as a Q400 flight training device, all used by pilots to complete their four annual sessions of simulator training and specialised training when moving to a new aircraft type.

The simulators were relocated from Sydney to make way for a major road project and were dismantled, transported by road and re-installed at the new Brisbane centre over a four-month period.

Qantas' new facility at Brisbane Airport can train up to 900 pilots a year

With the majority of Qantas’ pilots based in the three eastern states, the Brisbane centre, along with expanded facilities in Melbourne and a new flight training centre to be developed in Sydney, will provide significant cost savings through training pilots at their home base.

The Brisbane facility will provide reoccurring training for the airline’s 500-plus Queensland-based pilots as well as pilots from other states and many of the new pilots expected to join the Qantas Group in the years to come.

The facility also has a commercial dimension to it and will be open to other airlines in the Asia Pacific region to train newly recruited pilots, upskill pilots to new aircraft types and allow experienced pilots to maintain their ongoing training.

 “Qantas’ very first flying school was set up in 1927 in a tin shed at Eagle Farm, so we’ve clearly come a long way since then,” said Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce. “Having simulators based in Brisbane is great news for our Queensland-based pilots and is a clear vote of confidence in the long term future of aviation in this country despite the challenges we’ve faced recently. We have a Pilot Training Academy in Toowoomba that is providing a pilot pipeline to Qantas Group and other airlines, and some of the graduates have already secured pilot positions with QantasLink. They will complete the simulator phase of their training program at the new Queensland facility.”

The training facility will be staffed by 33 employees, including 18 new roles for highly skilled simulator instructors, simulator technicians and support staff.

Construction of the new facility commenced in March 2021 and the four simulators and flight training device are now active 24 hour a day, with up to 50 pilots and trainers using the centre each day.