The centre is the first of this kind outside North America to offer pilot and maintenance training for the Hawker 800/800XP and the Gulfstream IV and V full flight simulators, and it will be adding a second Boeing 737NG/BBJ simulator.

The Crown Prince of Dubai and the UAE's Minister of Defence, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, officially inaugurated the centre.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman of Emirates, and Derek H Burney, CAE's president and chief executive officer, were also present.

The three-storey state-of-the-art facility is the result of an agreement signed in 2001 between Emirates and CAE.