Sri Lankan airlines to boost flight training capacity with second simulator

August 05, 2012 (LBO) – State run Sri Lankan airlines is to take delivery of a new Dutch built A330 flight simulator early next year increasing the airline's capacity to offer flight simulator services to regional carriers, the airline said. The A320 flight simulator installed at the airline's flight training school last year has helped to double the intake of cadet pilots, cut training costs and time Perera said.

Currently Sri Lankan airlines, budget carrier Mihin Lanka and third parties use the A320 simulator to train their pilots.

The device has a database of over thirty airports.

"We have the capacity to train about thirty cadet pilots a year and cut costs by around fifty percent by having a simulator here," the carrier's chief operations officer Captain Druvi Perera said.

"The time saved is around two to three months," he said.

Sri Lankan airlines said pilots mostly trained in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Hongkong, Bahrain and India before the A320 simulator was installed.

With the delivery of the A330 simulator, the transition of a pilot from one aircraft to another aircraft will be easier, Sri Lankan airlines said.

The new flight simulator will help train more pilots in the operation of wide-bodied