Simulators to be moved to Amsterdam and Brussels
CAE’s Maastricht centre has become the first European casualty of the Canadian commercial pilot training provider’s drive to rationalise its global simulator network.
Two of CAE’s Fokker 50 simulators based at Maastricht in the Netherlands are being transferred to Hoofddorp near Amsterdam, while its ATR 42/72, Fokker F27 and Dornier 328 simulators are headed to its Brussels centre.
The closure of Maastricht signals the loss of around 30 full-time and eight part-time jobs, according to Edwin Vaessen from the Dutch CNV union, who represented 21 of CAE’s Maastricht employees, although some will be redeployed.
CAE confirms that, as part of the restructuring plan announced in February last year, “we are undertaking consolidation of our training footprint to better serve our customers and optimise our operations. In the greater context of CAE’s global network, we are redeploying [the Maastricht] simulators to the more accessible locations of Brussels and Amsterdam, which are more convenient for our clients.
“We are making efforts to retain as many employees as possible, who will move with us to either Brussels or Hoofddorp. Also, a contingent of employees is to stay on during the transition phase, which ranges from two to 10 months.”
CAE chief executive Bob Brown said his first task on taking the helm in mid-2004 was to conduct a six-month internal and external review of the company, whose balance sheet was under pressure following rapid and costly investment in training centres.
Brown said last July that he saw CAE’s April 2005-March 2006 fiscal year as a “transition period”, with the restructuring – which has also seen the closure of its Dallas, Texas centre – expected to begin paying off in the 2006-7 financial year. “We are looking at Europe,” confirmed Brown at the time.
A CAE airline customer told Flight International: “The simulator [we use] should now be in Brussels and we brought forward all our recurrent training to avoid the two-month moving gap.”
Airline customers of CAE’s Maastricht centre included Belgian regional VLM Airlines, UK regional Scot Airways and Dutch wet-lease operator Denim Air.
AIMEE TURNER / LONDON
Additional reporting by GRAHAM WARWICK
Source: Flight International
