Philippine low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific and Canadian training equipment and services provider CAE have entered into a joint venture agreement to establish a training centre in the Philippines.

The centre in the Clark Freeport Zone, which is located northwest of the capital city Manila, will be operational in the third quarter of 2012.

The facility represents an approximate $40-50 million joint investment, said the partners.

The joint venture will initially cater to Airbus A319/320/321 series pilot type-rating training requirements and will provide "wet" instructor led type-rating training for Cebu Air's current and new-hire pilots.

Moreover, the centre will offer initial, recurrent, conversion and jet indoctrination training to other Airbus operators.

The partners added that it expects the academy to provide training for other aviation personnel in the future, such as cabin crew, dispatch, ground handling personnel and cadets.

The academy will be developed in consultation with CAE's training facilities design team. It will initially be equipped with two Airbus A320 full flight simulators and have the capability to expand by two additional simulators.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news