Press Release

Lufthansa Aviation Training (LAT) has now transferred the first six new Cirrus SR20 training aircraft to its flight school in Phoenix, Arizona. Until April next year, further 19 SR20 aircraft are being added to the training fleet in the U.S. The total investment volume amounts 11.5 million euros.

Since 1972, student pilots are being trained on the single-engined training aircraft F33A Bonanza by Beechcraft at the US site of LAT. The new Cirrus SR20 is going to gradually replace the Bonanza aircraft. Equipped with the latest features and an emergency parachute for the entire aircraft, the new Cirrus will also reduce the operating and maintenance costs by 50 per cent.

“We are delighted to introduce the new Cirrus SR20 at our training location in Phoenix”, stated Rainer Hiltebrand, CEO Lufthansa Aviation Training GmbH. “The aircraft are very modern and efficient and thus make a perfect choice for the training purposes at Lufthansa Aviation Training”.

Three of the six training aircraft are marked on the tails with the logo of Lufthansa Group airlines Eurowings, Austrian and Lufthansa itself. Yearly, a total of up to 350 graduates are flying at the flight school in Phoenix, who are partly being trained for the Group airlines but also – among others – for All Nippon Air-ways (ANA) or the Federal Armed Forces in the desert of Arizona.

The six training aircraft are the first part of the training fleet that has been transferred from the Cirrus delivery location in Knoxville, Tennessee to Phoenix, Ari-zona by a delegation of Lufthansa pilots and flight trainers. The pilots have flown the singe-engined aircraft 3,000 kilometers across eight US states.