8 August 2023
Under the Radar: Flying an F16 without taking off – the business of retail flight simulation centres; On targeting pilot trainees and corporate clients looking for aviation-themed leadership training programmes; Higher fixed costs vs lower overheads; Size of retail flight simulator market; Positioning against flight schools, flying clubs in Singapore, Malaysia and Perth and team bonding activity providers
It’s that time of the year again where we see and hear fighter jets soar in the skies in celebration of National Day.
But if you want to be a Top Gun fighter in Singapore without leaving the ground – a trip to a retail flight simulator centre may be one of your better bets.
Our guest for today is WingsAcademy.sg, which prides itself as Singapore’s latest retail flight simulator centre offering simulator experiences in fighter jets such as the F-16C Fighting Falcon and commercial jets like the Boeing 737-800.
The company says it is not only targeting pilot trainees looking to get their flying licences as their customers, but also corporate clients looking for aviation themed leadership and management training programmes.
These corporate programmes can cost about S$12,000 for one person. So how lucrative is the business of flight simulators given that firms seem to operate with high fixed costs of acquiring the simulators and relatively lower overheads?
Meanwhile, Fortune Business Insights estimates the global flight simulator market – which looks at simulator providers servicing airlines – to grow from US$4.89 billion in 2023 to US$6.99 billion in 2030.
But how big do industry players expect the market for retail flight simulators to be?
On Under the Radar, Drive Time’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian sat down with Fabian Lim, Founder and CEO of WingsAcademy.sg and Mark Lim, Co-founder at WingsAcademy.sg for more.

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