September 15, 2008 // The newly constructed training centre, where all training facilities currently spread out over several sites will be combined at one location, is the third and final complex of the “Vienna Aviation Campus”, which was formally opened today. The training building provides a connection between the simulator centre of Lufthansa Flight Training and the already existent Flight Safety and Security Center (mock-up hall) of Austrian Airlines.

Commercial, technical, flight attendant and pilot training facilities are now located at the technical base in the central area of the airport premises. Through the new training centre, existing training procedures will be improved in many respects, which will result in a significant increase in the quality of training while simultaneously decreasing the costs of training sessions; because of, for example, decreased walking times, shortened training days, synergies in the utilisation of rooms and compacting of training activities. As a result of this higher concentration of training activities at one location, the external marketing of Austrian Airlines training offers are given a significant competitive advantage.

CEO of Austrian Airlines, Alfred Ötsch, remarks as follows: “The new Austrian training centre brings not only an economic improvement regarding the training procedures, but is also an expression of our appreciation of Austrian Airlines staff, who have made this product possible and represent it. With this new educational facility, not only do we offer our colleagues first-class training and further-training opportunities, but we will also use this facility to market our core themes of service and customer service to external companies in the form of customised training sessions. On this campus, we can train all our staff at a single location – and this is unique in Europe – which is also necessary for the safe, commercially viable and high-quality operation of an airline.”

Facts regarding the Austrian Training Centre
With a floor area of 4,300m² and four storeys, so-called “flight levels”, the training centre provides space for altogether 60 office work stations and approximately 400 training places in 23 lecture halls, which bear the names of aeroplanes, spacecraft and birds. The average utilisation of the building will comprise more than 300 trainees and 40 instructors. At this centre of expertise, 50 years of aviation experience will be passed on in all required fields of training. Austrian Airlines is renting the training centre from Flughafen Wien AG. Construction began on 30 July 2007.

The brand Austrian offers a new experience
The commissioned team of architects from ARGE BWM Architekten und Partner selected different shades of blue for the façade. These serve to symbolise the theme “sky”: 870 glass panels, covering an area of 2,006m2, will display pictures of a cloudy sky, to some extent transparently, and partly in three different shades of blue. The building’s appearance will therefore vary depending on weather conditions and time of day. In line with the brand positioning of Austrian Airlines, various familiar design elements from the head office will resurface here. The typical appearance of Austrian Airlines can also be experienced and recognised in the continuity and uniformity of the interior design. As a consequence, the brand is strengthened and the shared identity of all Austrian Airlines staff can be experienced.

New Dash 8 Q400 Simulator
The new turboprop simulator from the Lufthansa Flight Training Vienna GmbH will also be put into service in the next few days: the Dash 8 Q400 Simulator will be used for training purposes by the regional carrier, Tyrolean (Austrian Arrows). Due to the proximity of the new turboprop simulator, the training conditions for Tyrolean can be further improved – only recently, the sale of four new Bombardier Q 400 NextGen Series aircraft was announced. The utilisation of these aircraft will create significant advantages in technology, performance, economic efficiency and emissions.

Managing Director of Lufthansa Flight Training Vienna, Christian Korherr, adds: “We are looking forward to this new simulator, which will be ready for training by the end of September. It is a symbol of our good collaboration and places further confidence in Vienna as a site for aviation.”