Learn Italian: Il comandante, cioè il capo del volo, vi parla adesso. - The captain, that is the head of the flight, is speaking to you now.

Cioè is an explanatory marker meaning 'that is' or 'namely'. It is used here to clarify that il comandante means the head of the flight. You could absolutely replace it with ossia in this sentence, as they are interchangeable when clarifying or rephrasing something.

The English says 'is speaking', but the Italian uses the simple present parla. Why isn't it sta parlando?

In Italian, the simple present (parla) is very commonly used for actions happening right now, especially when a time word like adesso (now) is already in the sentence. You could say vi sta parlando adesso to strongly emphasize the ongoing action, but the simple present is completely natural here.

Why does vi come before the verb parla?

Vi is an indirect object pronoun meaning 'to you' (plural, addressing the passengers). Unstressed pronouns like vi generally must be placed immediately before the conjugated verb. If you wanted to place heavy emphasis on who is being spoken to, you could put it after the verb as parla a voi, but vi parla is the standard choice.

Is capo del volo the normal way to say 'captain' in Italian?