Toronto, Jul 9 (IANS): Montreal-based CAE, a world leader in providing simulators for training pilots, and InterGlobe Enterprises Limited of India have announced to form a joint venture training centre in India.

InterGlobe Enterprise Limited of India is the parent agency of low-cost carrier IndiGo.

According to a statement by the Indian high commission Friday, the new centre will be set in the National Capital Region of Delhi and provide pilot and maintenance training for the Indian aviation market.

To be the fifth aviation training centre operated by CAE in India, it will become operational by end of 2012.

The focus of the new centre will be to provide 'wet-and-dry' type rating, recurrent, conversion and jet indoctrination training for pilots and training programmes for maintenance technicians, according to the high commission statement.

Before flying commercial aircraft, pilots undergo up to 75 hours of training on simulators and there are different simulators for different aircraft. Pilots don't switch to fly other aircraft for which they don't have simulator training.

"In aviation lingo, recurrent refers to fresh simulator training for a pilot when he switches airlines to fly new aircraft. Conversion refers to simulator training for newly hired trained pilots by airlines and jet indoctrination refers to long periods of familiarization with wide-bodied aircraft," according to aviation expert Hemant Shah here.

The formation of a joint venture by CEA and InterGlobe was earlier announced at the Paris Air Show last month.

Making the announcement, Jeff Roberts, CAE Group president (civil simulation products, training and services, had said,
"India is estimated to need more than 7,000 new commercial pilots over the next seven years and our Delhi training centre will help support this growth."

Each year, CAE trains over 1,500 crew members, including pilots from Air India, Go Air, IndiGo, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet, at its training centre in Bengaluru.

CAE is only one of the two aviation simulator makers in the world. The other is US-based Frasca. Because of the heavy demand for simulators, the waiting period for delivery is said to be over fours years.