Pan Am International Flight Academy (PAIFA) has been acquired by a US investment firm which has agreed to at least double the size of the Miami, Florida-based independent training company over the next three years.
PAIFA was purchased by private Spanish investors in 1992 from the estate of defunct Pan American World Airways. The Academy has since expanded to include 15 commercial and business aircraft flight simulators. Chief operating officer Vito Cutrone says that the need to expand rapidly to meet growing demand for pilot training led to the hunt for new investors.
The search resulted in the selection of J W Childs, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Cutrone says that the firm has agreed to back an aggressive business plan that calls for the Miami centre to be expanded and new training bases to be established "in the near future".
The first step is an agreement with FedEx to build and operate a simulator centre for the new Ayres Loadmaster at the package carrier's Memphis, Tennessee, hub (Flight International, 19-25 August).
Cutrone says PAIFA is looking at four different US locations for additional training centres, each of which would have at least one anchor customer.
While most of the growth will come from pilot training for airlines, he says that the Academy also plans to expand its business aircraft simulator fleet.
Source: Flight International
