Taking off: New Las Vegas training facility to help pilots

A 50,000-square-foot flight training and simulation facility near Harry Reid International Airport is helping to train more than 2,500 pilots each year.

State officials and executives with simulation software maker CAE gathered Tuesday to host a ribbon cutting for CAE’s training facility, which started operating in October.

This will be a “gateway” facility for CAE to access the Western U.S., according to Ash Zare, training center leader for the Las Vegas facility, located off Sunset Road near South Eastern Avenue.

“Nevada has been the perfect place for CAE to launch its first West Coast training center,” Zare said.

CAE President and CEO Marc Parent said it’s the first training facility the company has opened in the U.S. since 2007. The company has more than 200 sites and training facilities in about 40 countries with more than 13,000 employees.

CAE considered opening a facility in California or Arizona but decided on Las Vegas because of its “strategic location,” pro-business environment and access to a talented aviation workforce in part because of its military bases, Parent said.

“We are already busting at the seams here,” Parent said. “We might need something more in the great state of Nevada, but let’s just say we’re on to expansion.”

Training pilots

The center features seven simulators for more luxury-focused planes such as the Bombardier Global 7500 and Gulfstream G650. The simulators can train pilots to face several scenarios such as engine failures and flying through hazardous, stormy conditions.

Zare said most of its clients are private aviation companies that fly charter and luxury planes.

He noted any expansion is contingent on economic conditions, but the company would consider placing more training facilities in Nevada.

Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, Governor’s Office of Economic Development Executive Director Tom Burns and Rep. Susie Lee., D-Nev., were on site to celebrate CAE’s new training facility.

“This really is about our vision of diversifying our economy, investing in a technology future and really taking advantage of our natural assets we have here in Southern Nevada,” Lee said. “I can’t think of a better location to have a state-of-the-art training facility for pilots.”

In September 2021, CAE was awarded $5.3 million in tax abatements by GOED to bring the training and simulation center to Southern Nevada. At the time, business leaders expected the company to create 78 jobs in the first two years and 87 jobs within five years.

Zare said that the facility employs more than 75 people and that number will grow to over 100 by next year.

And CAE is making a capital investment of $61.5 million and should generate $11.3 million in tax revenue over the next decade, he said.

With CAE being closely tied to the aviation industry and the niche sector of chartered and luxury aviation companies, Burns said the company can help bring in a “critical sector” of clients to Las Vegas.

“There’s a group of people there that are influential, that control a lot of investment in various areas that we’d like to have access to,” Burns said. “They’re certainly part of our target market to get them to invest here in Southern Nevada to bring those jobs and take care of the economy.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.