Tekever opens training centre in Peniche and expects to train more than 100 drone operators this year

Tekever has opened a training centre in the municipality of Peniche to “significantly strengthen” its operational capacity in Portugal. At this facility, the company will provide “specialised training for internal teams”, working in collaboration with the centre already in operation at West Wales Airport in the UK, with the aim of training “more than a hundred operators this year”.

“This training centre represents a decisive step towards consolidating our operational capacity in Portugal. It allows us to establish a consistent methodology for passing on the experience gained in the field, raising training standards and developing the teams that operate and support our systems. At the same time, it takes full advantage of the unique environment we have in Atouguia da Baleia to test, validate and refine critical operations”, said Arnaud Blanchard, head of operations at Tekever, quoted in a statement.

Located in Atouguia da Baleia, in the municipality of Peniche, the centre has been “fully operational since early 2026” and has already welcomed its first trainees. The infrastructure includes briefing and training rooms, aircraft components for practical training and a Ground Control Station (GCS) with access to ATLAS, the company’s proprietary software, enabling applied learning geared towards real-life scenarios.

In addition, it enables the execution of “different mission profiles, including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations”, explains Tekever in the statement. Working in conjunction with the training centre already operating at West Wales Airport (United Kingdom), the expectation is that it will “train more than a hundred operators this year”.

The space, whose investment value has not been disclosed, is yet another investment by the Portuguese company in the domestic market, where it has a presence in Caldas da Rainha, Leiria, Lisbon, Porto and Aveiro.

The company has also been investing in the British market, where it has a five-year investment plan of more than €400 million, with the opening of a fourth unit in Swindon planned for this year, as well as in Ukraine and France. The first drones are expected to start leaving the Cahors unit before the summer. In France, it already has 40 employees, out of a total of more than 1,000.