European Airline Training Facility Opens in September 2026 with Virtual Reality Expansion Planned for 2027

Germany – Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) and Eurowings have opened their first joint training center in Düsseldorf, establishing a dedicated safety and service training facility close to Eurowings' largest operating base.

• The new facility covers 2,000 square metres and is designed to train up to 150 participants per day. It is located at Heltorfer Str. 22 in Düsseldorf, close to Düsseldorf Airport.
• The center is initially dedicated to Eurowings training operations. LAT said the facility has been developed to accommodate additional airline customers and partners in the future, creating potential third-party training capacity in the Düsseldorf/Rhine-Ruhr market.
• Eurowings is also changing its Ground Recurrent Training model at the facility, with regular refresher training to place greater emphasis on competencies required during flight operations and scenarios drawn from crews' day-to-day work. Eurowings is the second Lufthansa Group airline to introduce this recurrent training concept.
• AFM previously reported that LAT reached the topping-out stage for the Düsseldorf facility in July 2026, when the center was being developed as a dedicated Eurowings cabin crew training location with provision for other airline customers in the future. The September opening moves the project from construction into operational training.
• Training infrastructure includes a cabin mock-up for evacuation exercises, an aircraft door trainer, additional Airbus A320 equipment, an evacuation slide tower for short- and medium-haul aircraft and an outdoor firefighting training area. A Virtual Reality Hub is scheduled to follow in 2027, providing selected virtual training scenarios for both cabin crew and pilots.

Statements

• “Together with Lufthansa Aviation Training, we are creating optimal training conditions at Eurowings’ largest base in Dusseldorf with the new Eurowings Crew Training Centre. In future, our cabin and cockpit crews will be able to train here in a practical, efficient manner and to the highest standards. Our investment in safety and service quality on board is also a clear demonstration of Eurowings’ commitment to North Rhine-Westphalia as an aviation hub,” said Edi Wolfensberger, COO at Eurowings.
• “Today’s opening marks an important milestone in our joint efforts with Eurowings to expand high-quality training infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia. Working closely together, we have succeeded in creating, within a short period of time, a modern training centre at the Dusseldorf location tailored to Eurowings’ needs for safety and service training. I wish our colleagues in the flight crews a consistently safe, engaging and successful training experience,” Matthias Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa Aviation Training.

About Eurowings
Eurowings is a Düsseldorf-headquartered Lufthansa Group airline focused on short- and medium-haul services, with Düsseldorf its largest base. Lufthansa Group's fleet data listed 98 A320-family aircraft for Eurowings as of July 31, 2026: 29 A319-100s, 50 A320-200s, eight A320neos, six A321-200s and five A321neos.

Source: Lufthansa Aviation Training & Eurowings