Boeing And CAE Partner On Pilot Competency Training Program

Boeing Global Services president and CEO Stephanie Pope and CAE president and CEO Marc Parent mark the signing of the CBTA training agreement.

Credit: Alan Dron

PARIS–India will become the first location in which flight simulator and training provider CAE offers Boeing’s Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) curriculum.

The two companies announced a partnership to provide the training program at the Paris Air Show June 18. Under the agreement, CAE will become a Boeing-authorized training provider and the first to offer the airframer’s CBTA program. 

The decision by CAE to initially offer CBTA at its two training centers in New Delhi and one in Bengaluru reflects the fast-growing Indian commercial airline scene. The Indian government is behind a massive scheme designed to bring air connectivity to small and underserved airports in the world’s most-populous country. 

The Indian program will initially focus on the Boeing 737 and 777. Boeing Global Services president and CEO Stephanie Pope said that training in India will be deployed from later this year.

“We prepare people for the moments that matter,” CAE president and CEO Marc Parent said at the air show. 

CBTA moves away from the traditional approach of test-based training in which pilots’ accuracy in flightdeck performance is measured against set criteria. CBTA is a more proficiency-based approach that focuses on how a pilot learns skills and reacts to situations they encounter.

The agreement with CAE and the deployment to India “gives us an opportunity to scale for our customers,” Pope said. 

Boeing is implementing the CBTA curriculum throughout its global training campuses in Seattle, Miami, London Gatwick, Shanghai and Singapore, as well as at customer locations worldwide.

Alan Dron

Based in London, Alan is Europe & Middle East correspondent at Air Transport World.