Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training has launched a restructuring that will see four centres closed, simulators relocated or retired and a new 787 training location opened in Shanghai, China in partnership with customer Shanghai Airlines.
The reorganisation will align Alteon's network more closely with the crew base locations of existing and potential long-term customers, says vice-president marketing Marsha Bell. Centres in Dallas, Texas and Long Beach, California, as well as Kunming, China, will close by the end of 2007, followed in mid-2008 by the centre at Luton in the UK.
Luton's 737-700/800 simulator will be relocated to Gatwick, its 757 to Manchester and Alteon is looking for a customer for its two 737 Classic machines. "In the UK, our customers' crew bases are centred on Gatwick and Manchester. Luton is less used," says Bell.
US training will be centred on the East Coast at Miami and West Coast at Seattle, Bell says. Dallas-based simulators will be retired or sold off, and Long Beach's 717 will be moved to Seattle and its 737-700/800 to Miami, while the 737-200 and MD-87/88 machines will be retired and the MD-11 sold.
Shanghai is more important to the future of Chinese aviation than Kunming, says Bell. Alteon will set up within Shanghai Airlines' new simulator centre, beginning training by year-end using a 757/767 machine moved from Kunming. The Thales-supplied 787 training equipment is due to arrive in the first quarter of 2008.
Kunming's 737-300 and 737-700 simulators will to relocated within the region or to a customer, says Bell, as its MD-82 and MD-90 machines retired or offered to customers in China.
Source: Flight International
