SAS opens new training centre in Oslo

Hello friends, some flight training news from Scandinavia. Yesterday, Thursday 7 October, SAS Flight Academy (where I work) inaugurated its new training centre at Oslo Gardermoen Airport in Norway, a result of the merger between SAS Flight Academy and Braathens Flight Training following SAS’ takeover of Braathens.

During the summer, Braathens’ two simulators (B737-400/500 and B737-700) were moved from their old training centre at the former airport at Oslo-Fornebu (which, coincidentally closed seven years ago today) to a new building at Gardermoen Airport which has been completed in 10 months. As the merger also included the commuter airline Widerøe, who until now operated their own Dash 8 simulator in Bodø, SAS’ Dash 8-100/300 simulator in Stockholm was moved to Oslo as well and Widerøe’s simulator school in Bodø closed.

Now, SAS Flight Academy has three training centres – Stockholm, with 14 full flight simulators, four flight training devices and four cabin simulators; Oslo, with three full flight simulators and two cabin simulators, and Copenhagen with cabin simulators only. With stiff competition from CAE and most major airlines own training centres, it’s a tough business but nevertheless exciting!

It was hard work taking down the simulators and building them up again during the summer but I was proud to see the results yesterday.

Enclosed is a miniscule picture taken with my mobile yesterday evening…

Now, enough propaganda, have a nice weekend everyone!