MONTREAL – In a historic move beyond its traditional pilot training base, CAE is now offering training for air traffic controllers (ATCs) and flight service specialists (FSS). This ATC/FSS training is being provided at CAE’s new Air Traffic Services Training Centre (ATSTC). It was officially opened on the company’s Montreal campus on January 16, 2025. Although CAE’s ATSTC officially opened on January 16th, the school has been training students since October 2024.
By James Careless
CAE’s ATSTC is being operated in partnership with NAV CANADA, the world’s first fully private Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP). NAV CANADA delivers ATC services to airports across Canada.
Under the partnership between CAE and NAV CANADA, CAE’s ATSTC is providing initial training to new ATCs and FSSes from across Canada using NAV CANADA’s training curriculum and courseware. At the same time, NAV CANADA continues to offer basic training, and remains the sole source for all specialty and advanced courses, plus on-the-job training for ATCs and FSSes nationwide.
READ: TECHNOLOGY PROFILE – CAE Defence & Security
According to CAE President and CEO Marc Parent, the partnership’s goal is to meet the increasing global demand for air traffic services personnel. As for why CAE is moving beyond its traditional focus on pilot training? “It’s a natural extension of our core mission at CAE, which is to make the world a safer place,” Parent told guests and media during the well-attended ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Because of the history, the legacy, the lineage of what we do in aviation, we are uniquely positioned to uphold those highest standards of excellence for this vital profession.”
NAV CANADA is fully supportive of CAE’s entry into ATC/FSS training and clearly delighted by their new partnership. “It’s a measure of our commitment that literally the entire executive team of NAV CANADA wanted to be here today: I don’t think that’s ever happened before,” observed NAV CANADA’s President and CEO Mark Cooper. He expects the ATSTC to deliver significant results: “We are going to see 478 students move through this facility by 2028,” Cooper said. “That is imperative to us as we look to rebuild our staffing and to meet future demand.”
At present CAE’s new ATC/FSS training efforts are focussed on civilian aviation. As for the company making the same move into military ATC/FSS training? “There’s definitely potential there, and we do have many defence and security training facilities that we want to leverage as part of it,” said Marie-Christine Cloutier, Head of CAE’s Air Traffic Services Division and VP-Strategy for Performance & Marketing. “We have partnerships between defence companies and ANSPs with our defence and security business segments. So yes, there’s definitely something that we want to explore.”
