Preparing the way for return to global operations - Airbus Flight Training COVID taskforce

Airbus Flight Training dedicated COVID taskforce is proactively implementing measures to guide its customers and stakeholders through the crisis and to prepare them for the resumption of normal operations worldwide. To this end, the taskforce has recently rolled-out various measures throughout Airbus’s global training network, National Aviation Authorities and Airbus operators. As well as basic solutions (such as the provision of health & safety guidelines; maintaining a ‘ready’ core team in each training centre and providing guidance to national Authorities), Airbus Flight Training also rolled-out several strategic solutions. The latter include: further deployment of classroom instruction via video-conferencing to allow ab-initio theoretical training to continue in the flight school network; increased distance-learning in the advanced flight training phase called “Extended Flight Training Distance” (EFTD) learning; renewed recency programme which is adapted to the ‘new reality’; and the ‘Airbus Pilot Re-launch Program’ (APRP), providing several solutions for training for pilots who have been grounded for an extended period. 

The EFTD learning solution, which involves virtual classroom instruction, allows the instructor to hold a class by video, with all pilots or cadets connected in an interactive video environment. EFTD complements the already existing e-learning modules covering "system knowledge", the initial part of the Type Rating training for the A320, A330 and A350. The virtual classroom instruction – which is designed to complement full-flight simulator training – was created and written by Airbus, and approved by the French national aviation authorities (DGAC). Meanwhile, APRP for pilots who have not flown for a few months, provides variable training scenarios to adapt to the individual, and incorporates the Competency-Based Training Assessment philosophy. It takes place over one day including both theoretical and practical (simulator) training.