Boeing unit looks to cash in on shift to multi-crew licence
Boeing training subsidiary Alteon is studying a possible move into the ab initio market as the industry shifts towards preparing student pilots for multi-crew airline flying from the outset.
Alteon president Patrick Gaines, speaking in the UK at the opening of the US company's simulator training centre near London Gatwick airport, said its interest in ab-initio training has emerged from the International Civil Aviation Organisation's work toward creating a licence for pilots who have, beyond the private pilot's licence stage, trained specifically for multi-crew operations and would take the test flight for their licence as part of a crew.
"Needs have changed," says Gaines, explaining that airlines are looking for pilots trained to a standard that equips them for their role as a co-pilot straight after completing their courses. Gaines says Alteon is in the early stages of assessing how it should meet airline needs beyond its current provision of pilot type ratings - which includes Airbus and other types, despite its Boeing ownership - and training for maintenance staff and cabin crew. He says it is too early to say whether Alteon would look for a partnership with existing ab initio training organisations, or create its own.
Boeing-owned Jeppesen will soon make the Alteon centre its UK headquarters, and will offer training in operations and flight-dispatching skills. Gaines believes the job of flight dispatcher in Europe may move toward being the fully skilled, licensed job it has long been in the USA.
Alteon's just-opened Gatwick training centre is its third in the UK. It houses full-flight simulators for the Boeing 737-700/800, 757/767 and Airbus A320 and is to have a total of six full-flight simulators "in the near future". It also trains engineers to European Aviation Safety Agency Part 147 standards for several Boeing types.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / GATWICK
Source: Flight International
