'This Crisis Brought Catastrophic Consequences For Many Pilots'

The aviation industry is hit hard by the global pandemic, with the majority of airlines forced to significantly reduce their operations, park their airplanes and lay off their staff, including crew members. In France, like many other countries, many airline pilots are affected and cannot fly.

According to the SNPL, (Syndicat National des Pilotes de Ligne) – the French National Union of Airline Pilots, this crisis brought catastrophic consequences for many pilots who were about to join airlines. Some cannot even claim unemployment benefits.

Most of these pilots need to maintain the validity of their flight licenses, especially as they no longer fly and must therefore finance their training themselves. No less important, they must keep their flying skills at the highest level, in order to have the chance to be re-employed as soon as possible.

“It was natural for us to favorably reply to SNPL demand to show solidarity with pilots who have lost their jobs during the Covid pandemic and today face the real challenge to keep their licenses up to date to be ready to start flying any time”, says Nicolas Mouté, CEO of SIMAERO.

“We have developed a special offer for individual pilots directed to us by SNPL for all products related to licenses revalidations and renewals on all the types of full flight simulators we have, which represents around a 30-40% reduction compared to the normal price”.

Pilots who would like to benefit from this cooperation shall apply via SNPL. SIMAERO will evaluate every individual situation and provide to the pilot an appropriate training program with special SNPL pricing. If the license is not yet expired or the expiration period is just few months, as little as one full flight simulator skill test of 3 hours may be required.

In case of license expiry, the renewal programs include the access to a ew Learning Management System which reduces on-site training requirement and thus travel and accommodation expenses. SIMAERO is glad to be able to help for Airbus 320, Airbus 330, Airbus 340, Boeing 737 (Classic and NG), Boeing 757, Boeing 767, Boeing 777, ATR-500 license holders.

FMI: www.sim.aero, https://snpl.com/