International Training Centre: 15 years training the world's best military crews

The Airbus International Training Centre in Seville is the training centre for military aircraft crews -A400M, A330 MRTT, C295, CN235- and future platforms such as Eurodrone.

Known as the ITC and located at the Airbus facilities in San Pablo, Seville, it celebrates its fifteenth anniversary in 2025. Here are 15 interesting facts about this world-leading training centre:

The largest private military aircraft training centre in Europe

1. The International Training Centre is the largest private military aircraft training centre in Europe. It is the only military transport training centre where so many platforms (A400M, A330 MRTT, C295, and CN235) are brought together in one place.
2. Over the past 15 years, more than 20,000 professionals have been trained, including all types of profiles involved in the operation and maintenance of these military aircraft. They are pilots, loadmasters, jumpmasters, mechanics, and mission systems operators. Currently, around 2,500 people are trained each year.
3. These professionals come from 90 operators around the world, from Spain to Turkey, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, the US Coast Guard, Singapore, and Indonesia, among many others.

150,000 hours of ‘real’ flight time

4. Currently, 250 people of different nationalities (Spanish, British, Polish, French, Portuguese, etc.) work at the ITC. The instructors are engineers, mechanics, and pilots, many of them with experience in military operators.
5. The ITC has five full flight simulators (FFS), as well as a cargo hold for the A400M. It also has 22 classrooms and multipurpose rooms geared towards customers.
6. The five FFSs have the highest certification from aviation safety authorities, as they are capable of replicating the movement, sound, images, and reaction of all aircraft systems. For example, they can simulate a flight in extreme conditions over Antarctica or an engine fire so that the pilot knows how to react if this were to happen in reality.

7. The realism of these five simulators means that one hour of flight time in an FFS is equivalent to one hour of flight time in a real aircraft. In the last fifteen years, a total of 150,000 flight hours have been achieved in the simulators.
8. In addition, the ITC has thirteen training devices with different levels of simulation, such as the A330 MRTT in-flight refueling console. This includes the simulation of automatic refueling, which is unique in the world. There are also 22 customer-oriented classrooms and multipurpose rooms.

From personnel transport to low-level flights and flights with night vision goggles

9. The origins of training at the Airbus facilities in Seville date back to the 1980s with the San Pablo Training Centre (CISP) and its two CN235 simulators. In 2010, the ITC was inaugurated and the C295 simulator was launched, along with a CN235 simulator. Three years later, the A400M simulator entered service, followed by the A330 MRTT simulator in 2018 and the second C295 simulator with Collins avionics in 2019.
10. The ITC offers courses for all types of personnel. From an operational standpoint, it covers both logistical training—cargo and personnel transport—and training geared toward tactical missions of the aircraft—cargo and personnel drops, operations on unprepared runways, low-altitude flights, flights in threat zones, formation flights, in-flight refuelling, night vision goggle flights, etc.
11. The basic courses for pilots last 50 days, for maintenance technicians 60 days, and for A400M loadmasters 30 days.

Local impact and training of the future

12. The ITC's activity has a significant impact on the local, regional, and national economy, driving the creation of high value-added jobs, such as engineers, pilots, mission system operators, and instructors.
13. The centre boosts the supply chain by contracting local small and medium-sized companies, such as Atexis and Skylife, contributing to the Andalusian industrial ecosystem.
14. In addition, more than 250 Airbus employees linked to the ITC support flight operations at 14 customer training centres, from South Korea to Canada.
15. The ITC is leading the development of future training, transforming it into a more connected, digital, and personalised ecosystem. This includes Artificial Intelligence projects to generate assets more quickly and the new Hybrid Cockpit solution (low-cost cockpits combined with virtual/mixed reality) for more immersive and efficient training.