Boeing's Alteon to close four training centres, add 787 in Shanghai

Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training is to close four of its simulator centres around the world as part of a restructuring to concentrate its training resources closer to major customers.

But the training provider is to open a new centre in Shanghai later this year, in partnership with Shanghai Airlines, which will house the first Boeing 787 full-flight simulator in China.

Alteon's centres in Dallas, Texas and Long Beach, California as well as at Kunming in China will close by the end of this year, while the centre at Luton in the UK will close in mid-2008.

The older simulators at Dallas and Long Beach will be retired, and the newer models relocated to existing training centres in Miami and Seattle, says vice-president marketing Marsha Bell.

The simulators now installed at Luton will be moved to existing Alteon centres at Gatwick and Manchester in the UK. This was based on requests from customers preferring simulators located in the north and south of the country, Bell says.

Kunming will be replaced by the new centre in Shanghai, which is a more important location for the future of Chinese aviation, Bell says. Kunming’s Boeing 757/767 simulator will be moved to Shanghai to begin training by the end of this year.

A suite of Thales-supplied 787 pilot and maintenance training devices will be operational at Shanghai in the first half of next year, Alteon says. Shanghai Airlines has ordered nine 787s for delivery beginning in 2008.

Overall, Alteon says, the centre closures and simulator relocations, along with the retirement of underutilised devices, will reduce training capacity while focusing it more closely on customers with which it has long-term partnerships.

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Source: FlightGlobal.com