Graham Warwick/LONDON
CAE is to acquire Nether-lands-based Schreiner Flight Training in a deal which will accelerate the Canadian simulator manufacturer's move into the airline pilot training market.
The C$260 million ($168 million) deal will add four simulator centres to CAE's growing network of training bases, the first of which opened in mid-April, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Canadian company has already announced plans to open a centre in Toronto in November and another in Madrid, Spain, in the first quarter of next year.
CAE has also announced a 10-year agreement under which it will locate three simulators at Alitalia's Rome Fiumicino centre to provide training for the Italian airline and other carriers.
Schreiner operates 19 simulators at four locations - Amsterdam and Maastricht in the Netherlands; Brussels, Belgium; and Dallas, Texas. Another five are on order from CAE, which supplied 70% of Schreiner's present fleet.
The transaction is expected to close in July and, says CAE, will boost flight training revenues from the C$50 million expected for the fiscal year ending next March to C$120-125 million. The acquisition will expand CAE's activities into "wet" training, in which centres provide instructors and courseware as well as simulator time.
Under the Alitalia deal, CAE will build and own Airbus A320, Boeing 767-300ER and 777-200 simulators to be installed next year at Fiumicino. Half the simulators' capacity will be marketed by CAE to other airlines.
Source: Flight International
