The celebration of SIMAERO’s 20th Anniversary is the perfect occasion to reflect and look back at the company’s history and how it became what it is today.
SIMAERO has been started as the joint-stock company SIM, registered on 24th May of 2002. The 2 shareholders, former employees of the airline “Air Liberté”, Mr. Eric Renault and Mr. Jean-Marc Petit, opened a simulator training centre in Dinard in the region of Britany (France) not far from the iconic Mont Saint Michel.
Initial operations began with 2 then 3 Fokker Full Flight Simulators (FFS): F100 and F28 regional jets and F27 turboprop. This variety of niche aircraft types on offer allowed the Company to build a steady customer portfolio at the beginning of the new millennia, amongst the then many regional operators of the Dutch aircraft in Europe & Africa and even more remote countries! The business was started in 16 square meters office and only with 1 employee.
In 2008, the company won a contract to provide the French Air Force with pilot training and simulator maintenance on the KC-135 FFS. The KC 135 is a Boeing 707-derived mid-air refueler. This kickstarted the company’s rapid expansion, with strong growth from SIMAERO’s simulator maintenance division.
The business was very successful, and the 2 shareholders decided to invest further new locations and capacity. In 2009 the training center in Johannesburg opened, followed by the Paris training centre in 2010. These major investments increased the number of offered full flight simulators to 12 with the capacity to grow to 18. The growth of the training services division was accompanied by increasing international recognition, most notably with the certification of the Paris training center by the Chinese Civil Aviation Authority, allowing SIMAERO to provide training services to Chinese airlines.
In 2018, Rive Private Investment acquired a majority stake in SIMAERO, the “ideal partner to support the growth of the company and reinforce SIMAERO’s ambition of becoming a global market leader” according to CEO Nicolas Mouté.
Some important contracts have to be mentioned as major development milestones in SIMAERO history :
Innovation is an important part of SIMAERO development. Thanks to a professional team, WISDOM the online learning system has been introduced and successfully approved for pilots training in March of 2021. It offers a variety of ground courses online as well as virtual training, records management, and instructor standardization tools. What’s most important, it enabled SIMAERO to continue to serve its clients during a global pandemic and even to attract new clients from the entire world.
Today, the SIMAERO group offers 30 Full Flight Simulators across 4 Training Centres worldwide, in Paris, Johannesburg, Zhengzhou, and still in the first Training Centre in Dinard. SIMAERO group’s Team consists of nearly 200 aviation professionals, permanent employees, and freelance instructors. 18 of them have been happy with the self-realization of their professional careers for as long as 10-16 years.
Strong of its 20 years of expansion and improvement, SIMAERO is now proud to offer a complete training package for many customers across the globe and continues to write its next chapter of development.
Simaero is a world-leading provider of pilot training on full-flight simulators and simulation engineering solutions. In global aviation, change is a constant. We promise to be a straightforward and continual presence in the complex training requirements of international airlines and pilots. With five training centres strategically located in France (headquarters), South Africa, China and India, Simaero trains over 5,000 pilots every year from 250+ civil and military carriers and 80+ countries. Our simulator fleet and training solutions cover the main commercial aircraft types, including Airbus, Boeing, ATR, and Embraer.
Marion BAUDRU
Simaero Marketing and Communications Manager
+33 (0)7 87 26 65 59
m.baudru@sim.aero
©Simaero Holding. 26 avenue de la demi-lune, 95700 Roissy-en-France, France
