CLARK FREEPORT -- The Asian Aviation Center for Excellence (AACE) of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has invested in the Philippine Academy for Aviation Training (PAAT), which is based in this Freeport.
The PAAT has announced its tie up with the AACE, an aviation training centre jointly owned by aviation corporate giants namely CAE Inc. of Canada and AirAsia, the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia.
AACE is based in Kuala Lumpur with subsidiary in Singapore which provides training for pilots, cabin crew, maintenance engineers, technicians, grounds service personnel.
The Malaysian aviation center offers leadership and management training for airlines throughout the ASEAN region with complete training of all AirAsia’s pilots, cabin crew, maintenance and ground services personnel.
AACE chief executive officer Dato’ Fareh Mazputra said the partnership will realize the firm’s vision of expanding operations in the region.
This, he added, will make AACE a truly ASEAN training hub offering a complete training system and state of the art facilities for the aviation industry.
PAAT, which opened in Clark Pampanga in December 2012, is an Aviation Training Organization (ATO) approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to train pilots in Airbus A319/320/321 series.
It offers type-rating and recurrency training for the Airbus A320 family and has one Airbus Pilot Transition Trainer & two Level-D Full Flight A320 Simulators in its training center.
PAAT's instructors have extensive experience as airline pilots and have previously worked with Airbus training centers abroad.
PAAT instructors had two standardization training conducted by Airbus flight instructors from Toulouse, France since it opened.
Raoul S. Perez, General Manager of PAAT, said working hand in hand with AACE will set the stage for the Philippines to become an important destination for pilots, cabin crew and airline workers who will gain additional experience, skills and world-class training opportunities.”
AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Zest, which are members of the AirAsia Group, had signed a Training Services Agreement with PAAT.
AirAsia has been using PAAT’s facilities for the recurrent training of its pilots since April 2015.