Case Study:
Air Arabia
Intelligent thinking
Air Arabia, based in Sharjah,
United Arab Emirates, enjoys a well-established reputation as the
largest of the Low Cost Carrier (LCC) operators in the Middle East
and North Africa. A pioneer in its region, Air Arabia flies to more
than 84 destinations worldwide and has hubs strategically located
in Morocco, Egypt and the UAE. The Air Arabia fleet comprises
32 leased and owned A320 aircraft, with an existing order for 44
A320s - delivery to be completed by 2016. The airline was voted
the world’s best LCC in the world by Aviation Week, and lives by the
motto: ‘Pay Less. Fly More’.
Air Arabia’s success is the result of intelligent thinking and smart
decision making across all parts of the business, and this includes
taking a long-term view of its pilot training requirements. Sending
pilots away from its home base to train at third-party facilities on
simulators that were not fully representative of the Air Arabia fleet
was proving impractical. Bringing the training in house for their
sole dedicated use at this critical stage in the airline’s growth was
therefore vital, Mechtronix Vice President George Karam, identified,
“It was obvious for Mechtronix that Air Arabia was a good
candidate for the Train@Home™ solution. Air Arabia has
understood the importance of applying an
innovative business model in addressing
its customer needs if it were to be
competitive and profitable. At the
same time Air Arabia was in the process of setting up its MPL
training program. Accordingly, Mechtronix approached Air Arabia
and following a review of the underlying Train@Home™ business
case, including training centre setup and operation, the parties
agreed to move forward. Once the technical specifications of the
FFS X™ were agreed and the services required defined, a new
Train@Home™ model became a reality.”
Mechtronix’
Train@Home supports
the growth ambitions
of Air Arabia
TM
Based in Sharjah, the training centre houses a Mechtronix A320
FFS X™ that was qualified to Level D as per EASA regulations by the
UK Civil Aviation Authority in 2011.
www.mechtronix.com
Air Arabia pilots can now perform 100% of their training covering
all phases of their career with the airline. As a Level D qualified
device, the Air Arabia A320 FFS is authorised for all training,
testing and checking credits to cover type rating training, recurrent
training, recency, command upgrade, jet transition and MCC
training as applicable.
Purchasing the simulator was one objective; another was deciding
how best to support and maintain the device on an ongoing basis.
Air Arabia recognised that at this stage it was perhaps not the
best use of its resources to have to recruit, train and develop a
dedicated FSTD maintenance team to fulfill the regulatory and
Quality Management System requirements involved in owning and
operating a high-end Level D FFS.
Achieving maximum availability
Ensuring close
to 100% availability of the device to meet current and future
training requirements was going to be essential. Consequently
an agreement was reached with Mechtronix to provide turnkey
support and maintenance based on achieving availability targets
in excess of industry norms to satisfy the airline’s training demand.
Mechtronix responded by placing an experienced training centre
field support manager within the centre and hiring local graduates
with the appropriate technical backgrounds to provide additional
support.
Backed up by dedicated training and support from Mechtronix
European support bases in France and The Netherlands, the
Mechtronix Train@Home™ business model has now been running
successfully since 2011 delivering reduced cost of ownership to
Air Arabia and allowing it to focus its resources on the continuing
development and growth of the airline.
The Mechtronix Train@Home™ model is a flexible solution that
combines the required tailored FSTD solution with a range of
services to achieve a local and cost-effective training package.
Much like Air Arabia’s motto, Mechtronix has been successful by
working with various airlines allowing them to ‘spend less and train
more’, says George Karam Vice President at Mechtronix.
By extending the low cost model thinking to its training centre
requirements, Air Arabia enjoys real operational and
Mechtronix A320 FFS X™
in the Air Arabia’s training center
© Mechtronix Inc. September, 2013
Contact Mechtronix for more information: [email protected]
www.mechtronix.com
cost benefits: not having to rely on third-party training centres gives
Air Arabia much greater flexibility and significantly reduces the
cost of operations. With Mechtronix Train@Home™ specifically,
users can enjoy more than 99% availability of the training devices
installed, helped by the 24/7 support and maintenance services
that are available on site. The reduction in the time required for
type rating or recurrent training that is saved by not sending crews
abroad delivers further cost and operational advantages.
Captain Mohamed Ahmed, Air Arabia Director of Operations, says
that working with Mechtronix has helped deliver the lowest A320
hourly training cost in the world, “As a leading low-cost carrier in
the Middle-East, our philosophy consists of delivering unparalleled
quality services within an operating cost structure that is lower than
other regional and international airlines. Choosing the Mechtronix
A320 Full Flight Simulator and support services to fulfill our training
requirements was simply the smart and logical choice. The cost
of owning our FFS is considerably lower than sending our pilots
away to train and the cost of operating and maintaining our FFS as
managed by Mechtronix is the lowest in the industry. As a result,
we have a very efficient and economical A320 training setup. But
the decision was not based on cost alone. It was just as much
about the enhanced quality of training and improved training
results. The Mechtronix technology along with the features tailored
to Air Arabia’s requirements enabled us to provide more realistic
and enhanced training scenarios for our operations. We are very
satisfied of our decision to work hand-in-hand with Mechtronix, a
decision that has given us a flexibility in our training programmes
that was not possible before.”
Like Air Arabia’s low cost business model, the Mechtronix
Train@Home model is smart and cost-effective hence its selection
by successful carriers such as Air Arabia.