Market Intelligence: -Training Aircraft Developments

Global Pilot Training Group AeroGuard Flight Training Center Takes Delivery of First 5 Planes from 90 Aircraft Order with Piper Aircraft

Phoenix, United States headquartered global flight training group AeroGuard Flight Training Center, which operates a number of flight training bases in the United States, dedicated to training future commercial airline pilots from around the globe, is excited to announce the delivery of the first five planes from its 90 aircraft order with Piper Aircraft.

AeroGuard placed a 90 aircraft order with Piper in late 2023, acknowledging the significant growth its domestic and international programs have seen this past year. Last month, AeroGuard added another 4 planes to its fleet, pushing their total aircraft past 100 planes. Now as AeroGuard takes delivery of these new Piper Archers, it nears 110 planes in its fleet.

With strong existing airline partnerships with global airlines like Cathay Pacific, Air India, and China Airlines training their Cadet Pilots, plus a domestic partnership with SkyWest Airlines, the largest regional airline in the U.S., AeroGuard remains a clear choice for airlines to train and prepare future professional pilots for the airline industry.

Beyond aircraft acquisition, AeroGuard also continues to expand its training capacity and resources to meet incoming student demand. Domestically, AeroGuard’s Pilot Pathway Program and its program with Arizona State University train hundreds of pilots, many of which become flight instructors to build their experience to 1,000 or 1,500 hours required for hire at U.S. airlines. AeroGuard has created a seamless path for its students to train in a quality environment, become a flight instructor to build their hours, and transition to their careers at the airlines, with 250+ Instructors currently employed.

AeroGuard’s CEO, Joel Davidson, shared “AeroGuard is excited to take delivery of these first five planes from our 90-aircraft order with Piper Aircraft, recognizing our growth and position in this industry. The addition of these new planes will continue to build our training capabilities and ensure our students receive the highest standard of pilot education while working towards their professional careers. These aircraft and further acquisition emphasize AeroGuard’s commitment to excellence in flight training and preparing the next generation of pilots for successful careers with leading airlines.”

Over the past year, AeroGuard has also expanded its physical space across its three U.S. campuses as it prepares to train up to 2,000 students. With a commitment to safety and student success, AeroGuard will continue expanding its fleet with further aircraft acquisition to support the school’s students as they build the skills, knowledge, and experience they need for long and successful careers at the airlines.

In picking up this first delivery of its 90 aircraft order, several AeroGuard flight instructors traveled to Piper’s headquarters in Vero Beach, Florida to pick up the Archers and bring them safely back to AeroGuard’s Phoenix, Arizona, USA campus.

About AeroGuard Flight Training Center
AeroGuard Flight Training Center is a global leader in ab initio flight training with three U.S. campuses that offer accelerated commercial pilot training programs to candidates from all over the world. With a commitment to safety and student success, AeroGuard’s high quality training has established airline-ready cadets for over 20 years with more than one million flight hours of training experience and graduating over 7,000 cadets.

Source: AeroGuard Flight Training Center
Photo Credit: AeroGuard Flight Training Center

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Training Aircraft Manufacturer Elixir Aircraft Announces the Delivery of its 25th Aircraft

Elixir Aircraft, a fast-growing training aircraft manufacturer headquartered in La Rochelle, France, has delivered its 25th aircraft.

Elixir Aircraft is also deploying two aircraft to EAA AirVenture, the world’s largest airshow, held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. This year marks Elixir Aircraft’s third consecutive appearance at EAA AirVenture, and the company is returning with a larger booth, an expanded team, and renewed enthusiasm following the recent announcement that by the end of 2024, their U.S. site will be operational at Sarasota Bradenton Airport (SRQ). A 12,500 sq ft hangar will be dedicated to the initial reassembly of aircraft delivered to Elixir’s American customers. A second 6,000 sq ft building will be handed over in August 2025, to continue reassembly and maintain a stock of spare parts for the US East Coast.

Moreover, to speed up deliveries, Elixir’s second site in La Rochelle is now opened in the city of Aytré for the production of OneShot composite parts. Elixir Aircraft now has 3 sites in Europe and America.

Source: Elixir Aircraft
Photo Credit: Elixir Aircraft

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Training Aircraft Manufacturer Elixir Aircraft Announces 2024 Appointment for Director of Customer Support

Elixir Aircraft, a fast-growing training aircraft manufacturer headquartered in La Rochelle, France, has recruited Marc Douton as Director of Customer Support. With his extensive experience of customer relations in the aviation industry, an international career and a solid technical background, he will reinforce the executive team as Elixir production ramps up. He took up his new post, based at La Rochelle headquarters, on 1st July 2024.

From KLM to Dassault Aviation

Marc Douton has very good knowledge of customer support, in all types of aviation structures: MRO, and operators of commercial and business aircraft.

After starting his career in bench-mark maintenance workshops such as those of Air France, KLM, AOM, Air Tahiti Nui and SOGERMA, Marc Douton joined the customer support teams of leading aircraft manufacturers. For Airbus initially, he was a representative for the Emirates, based in Dubai, then for Malaysia Airlines in Kuala Lumpur; in both cases to support the A380 entry into service.

Marc Douton then worked in the Dassault Aviation group for ten years, as Falcon customer service representative in Eastern Europe, Asia and Polynesia. In 2022, he joined the consulting firm McLarens Aviation. He holds several type ratings in the Airbus A340, A380, Boeing 767, 737 and Dassault Falcon 7X/8X families.

As a result, Elixir Aircraft’s customers will now be able to enjoy services and procedures from airline aviation.

Structuring Customer Support

With orders for 200 aircraft – including orders, pre-orders and letters of intent – and 25 aircraft in operation in Europe, Elixir Aircraft is currently organizing its customer support department.

Marc Douton supervises a team of five: two customer support managers, a workshop manager and two mechanics. This team provides customer support, training and stock management of spare parts. The team is set to expand as production develops.

To this end, Elixir Aircraft is continuing its recruitment campaign for its three La Rochelle sites, before starting to recruit the teams expected at the Sarasota site in the USA in early 2025.

“In addition to his industrial experience in commercial and business aviation, Marc’s keen interest in light aviation was a deciding factor in his recruitment. He holds a Part-66 aviation maintenance licence, is a pilot and owner of a microlight, and has a passion for mechanics. We welcome him!” said Arthur Léopold-Léger, CEO and co-founder of Elixir Aircraft.

“I’m proud to join Elixir Aircraft, a manufacturer that is about to revolutionise the training market. I’d like to thank the co-founders for their confidence in me, and assure them of my determination to achieve maximum customer satisfaction,” said Marc Douton, Elixir Aircraft’s Customer Support Manager.

About Elixir Aircraft
Elixir Aircraft is a French aircraft manufacturer founded in 2015 to meet the challenges of global light aviation. Based in La Rochelle, it has over 150 employees and is recruiting massively. Elixir Aircraft designed and has been building a 4th-generation two-seater aircraft, certified EASA CS-23 since 2020. Elixir Aircraft uses technology from the world of competitive sailing, the “Carbon Oneshot” (in one piece), to simplify structures. More simplicity means fewer failures, so greater safety, but also less maintenance, and lower costs (estimates of savings of $50/h fuel and maintenance). At the end of 2021, Elixir Aircraft opened a new production site in Périgny, Charente Maritime, to bring production of all carbon parts in-house. 

There are 25 Elixir aircraft currently in operation, with over 200 of the 4th-generation Elixir aircraft on the order book (firm or pre-orders). In June 2023, the French President announced a 13-million euro subsidy for Elixir Aircraft. In early 2024, Elixir Aircraft announced the closing of its development financing for the next 5 years, with a budget of 40 million euros. In April 2024, Elixir Aircraft announced the opening of its US factory in Sarasota, Florida.

Source: Elixir Aircraft
Photo Credit: Elixir Aircraft

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Turkish Airlines Flight Academy Places Order for 13 Additional Diamond Aircraft and 2 Simulators

Turkish Airlines Flight Academy (TAFA) has recently received 2 brand-new DA42-VI and ordered 6 DA40 NG, an additional 7 DA42-VI and two Convertible DA40/DA42 FNPT II. With this new investment, the Diamond Aircraft Fleet will be increased to 26 Diamond aircraft (12 DA40, 14 DA42).

TAFA CEO, Assoc. Prof. İbrahim Zeki AKYURT stated: “Turkish Airlines Flight Academy is dedicated to training top-quality pilots to meet our airline’s growing needs. The new Diamond DA40 NG and DA42-VI aircraft simulators will enhance our training programs as the identical cockpits of the DA40/DA42 simulators will ensure seamless transition to real flight operations, reflecting our commitment to excellence in pilot training.”

“Diamond Aircraft would like to congratulate Turkish Airlines Flight Academy on the new aircraft purchase,” said Jane Wang, Sales Director, Diamond Aircraft Austria. “They will hugely benefit from the most modern piston training aircraft technology available today and Diamond’s operational cost efficiencies as well as low emissions and noise signature.”

The 4-seat DA42-VI is the newest version of Diamond’s technology leading light piston twin-engine aircraft. It’s the first certified general aviation piston aircraft to combine modern technology airframe, avionics, and power plants. With its unique combination of performance and utility, the jet fuel powered DA42-VI is designed to make transitioning from single to twin engine much easier. The aircraft generates fuel savings of up to 50% compared to conventional AVGAS powered twins, and its panoramic canopy provides excellent visibility during all flight maneuvers.

The modern and safe composite DA40 NG, powered by the sophisticated Austro Engine 168 hp AE300 jet fuel engine, is an effective training platform for commercial cross-country navigation and instrument approach/landing procedures. The aircraft features Garmin G1000 NXi glass cockpits and is exceptionally fuel efficient and quiet.

Diamond Aircraft’s flight simulation devices are exact replicas of the real Diamond aircraft, built with authentic aircraft parts, with real avionics, high-end visuals and OEM flight dynamic models for fidelity that is simply unsurpassed. The instrument panel is fitted with the original Garmin G1000 NXi avionics suite and standby instruments, allowing to train in a completely realistic environment. Diamond simulators are at the cutting edge of the industry to ensure the most sophisticated simulation training in preparation for advanced flight training.

About Diamond Aircraft’s Flight Training Solution
Diamond’s dedication to flight training has shaped its product line of modern fuel-efficient aircraft, each with a specific training application in mind. With its complete line of piston aircraft – including a dedicated flight training concept with Single Engine Piston (DA40 NG, DA40 XLT) and Multi Engine Piston (DA42-VI) trainers, along with type-specific flight training simulators and proprietary jet-fuel engines – Diamond Aircraft is the only sole source provider in the flight training market.

About Turkish Airlines Flight Academy
Turkish Airlines Flight Academy (TAFA) is a shareholder company single-partner joint-stock company and a fully owned subsidiary of Turkish Airlines. Its main areas of operation are flight training and airport management. As a sub-brand of Turkish Airlines, it was founded to provide training for cadet pilots to meet Turkish Airlines pilot requirements, as well as offering Airline Transport Pilot Training (ATP (A) Airline Transport Pilot Training) since June 21, 2012.

TAFA’s mission is to train cadets and flight instructors (FI) who are equipped with competencies in line with the culture and values of Turkish Airlines, utilizing international standards and scientific methods. TAFA has set goals for itself to expand its training capacity professional pilots to meet the increasing need for qualified pilots of Turkish Airlines.

Since 2013, TAFA has performed its training at Aydın Çıldır Airport academy facilities, with 42 Training Aircraft, 4 FNPT II Flight Simulators, 55 Flight Instructors, and 3 Flight Operation Bases, (Aydın Çıldır LTBD, Selçuk Efes Airport LTFB, Uşak Airport LTBO).

To date, TAFA has produced about 1500 graduates, with an annual graduate capacity of 300.There are currently 150 students in the theoretical training phase and 250 cadets in the flight training phase. The average graduation time is less than 15 months.

Source: Diamond Aircraft

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