Jacques actual statement was “of the 900 hours flown each year only 3 hours are manually flown. Typically these 3 hours consist of minor corrections of < 1 degree below 1000 ft . Airbus are reviewing their training programs to take this into account“.
At no time did he state handling skills were under threat.
Edited to add - What was really surprising was that the Airbus presentation followed a Boeing presentation where Boeing advised that they were REDUCING the conversion time for the 787 (to save cost!!) whereas Airbus took an opposing position and stated that they would not compromise conversion time for safety/quality of training.
Considering Boeing are about to increase everyones training costs by +15% (an announcement sometime within the next few months similar to the BCF saga that will have very significant implications for us all) I am amazed by the lack of reaction to this.
Last edited by ZFT; 12th Sep 2009 at 13:37.