Boeing subsidiary Alteon has adopted a new business plan focused on profiting from the surplus of training simulators and from the increasing outsourcing of on-the-job maintenance training for airlines.
The aviation training services company also aims by the end of the year to release a forecast projecting pilot and maintenance needs into the future, says Marsha Bell, vice-president for marketing.
The proposed forecast would be in the mould of "current market outlook" published every year by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, but project on "resources required to prepare people to operate these aircraft", Bell says. BCA's forecast projects strong and steady growth for both passenger and cargo air traffic through the next 20 years.
Since Alteon was formed in 2003 from a merger between units of Boeing and Flight Safety International, the company has focused on distributing training services to overseas sites, rather than requiring customers to receive training at US-based centres. Alteon now operates from 20 locations and 13 countries, with a new site in Asia expected soon.
Alteon will seek to partner airlines to make use of surplus capacity in their in-house training simulators. The prototype is Alteon's recent agreement with All Nippon Airways to sell the carrier's unused simulator time to Alteon's other customers, Bell says.
In the maintenance business, Alteon will seek to offer a new suite of products and services aimed at standardising on-the-job training.
Source: Flight International
