Boeing (BA) today announced it is consolidating flight training capabilities in North America – including 787 flight and maintenance training – at the Boeing Flight Services training campus in Miami. The consolidation is part of a larger Commercial Airplanes focus on customer commitments, stepping up efforts to meet market demand for Boeing products, services and support as airplane delivery rates increase.
Boeing will relocate all full-flight simulators and other devices from Seattle to Miami, starting with two 787 training suites. Miami is Boeing’s largest commercial aviation training campus and is a preferred training location for customers based in Latin America as well as the United States, Middle East, Europe and elsewhere. With this consolidation, Miami will be established as the pro forma flight training location for Boeing in the Americas. Implementation will begin immediately.
“This is about getting close to our customers, doing what is right for them and bringing them the best product support and services in the industry,” said Sherry Carbary, vice president, Flight Services, Commercial Aviation Services. “If we are going to better serve our customers and meet training commitments and airplane deliveries as we ramp up on rate, the time to do this is now.”
With 20 simulator bays, the Miami facility is one of the largest commercial flight training campuses in the world, but currently that space is underutilized, with 11 training devices and the capacity to accommodate nine additional full-flight simulators.
The majority of the Seattle Flight Services team will not be affected, but some employees will be impacted by the planned consolidation, Carbary said. “Our training team is the best in the industry. We value the contributions they bring to Boeing every day, and the competitive advantage they bring to our customers around the world.”
The plan to locate 787 training in Miami was announced in 2008 as part of Boeing’s strategy to better serve the training requirements of airlines by locating training closer to where they do business.
Over the past several years Boeing has consolidated and relocated a number of flight training campuses, including four in the United States, based on customer requirements. Boeing Flight Services, a part of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, has also continued to expand capabilities elsewhere across the global network including new campuses in Shanghai; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Istanbul and is expanding capabilities at existing campuses in Singapore and London with additional new full-flight simulators.
Strategic positioning of the Boeing global training network is of vital importance to airlines around the world as they seek world-class training resources to meet the demand for aviation personnel. The 2012 Boeing Pilot & Technician Outlook, a respected industry forecast of required commercial aviation personnel, cites a need for 460,000 new pilots and 601,000 new maintenance technicians over the next 20 years.
