Alteon

The centre will tap into the market for operators in the region who cannot afford their own sims, and local airlines Skywest, Alliance and Air Niugini have already availed themselves of the facility’s Fokker 100 simulator.

“The Singapore centre greatly expands our capability to meet the increasing demands for aviation training in the region,” Alteon’s president, Sherry Carbary, said in Sydney on January 24. “Our facility in Singapore was set up based on feedback from customers who wanted these facilities closer to their home bases rather than having to come to Seattle or travel to another foreign facility. ”

Full Service Training

Alteon considers itself the world’s first full-service provider of airline training, contributing to improved aviation safety by meeting the industry’s training needs.

Started in 1997 as a joint venture between Boeing and FlightSafety International (FSI), the company was initially known as FlightSafety Boeing Training International, or FSB. Boeing acquired FSI’s stake in the company in 2002, and today Alteon operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing within its Commercial Airplanes Commercial Aviation Services (CAS) division.

“We are the largest commercial aviation training company in the world, with 22 locations in 13 countries, including nine locations in the Asia Pacific region,” Carbary explained. “We have 1200 staff including more than 400 qualified instructors. I’d estimate we have about 10 per cent of the total global commercial training market, with the airlines themselves conducting between 50 and 60 per cent. ” Worldwide, Alteon has simulators for just about every possible Boeing type in service from the 717 to the 777; Airbus A320, 330 and 340; the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, MD-80, and MD-90 series, MD-11 and the Fokker 100. The centres offer services from leasing simulator time to an airline with its own instructors, to providing type instructors, right through to providing an airline’s entire technical, maintenance and cabin crew training needs. Several ofAlteon’s centres are singleairline use only, such as that at Haneda Airport in Tokyo which is used exclusively by ANA, Buenos Aires which is run in conjunction with Aerolineas Argentinas, Mexico City, Asiana’s Gimpo centre, and Melbourne’s Qantas centre.

Many of Alteon’s training facilities and procedures have been set up in consultation with various regulatory authorities in order to help shape the training that establishes industry standards.

As the service entry of the new Boeing 787 draws closer, Alteon will be offering the aircraft’s customers a new and innovative way to access its training resources.

Customers who buy the aircraft will be awarded points which can then be redeemed on Alteon training services. So rather than there being a standard training package for a new type as there has been in the past, customers can vary the training they receive based on their own requirements, and do so using the redeemable points system which doesn’t expire until two years after the final aircraft is delivered to the customer. Additionally, supplementary and ongoing points are awarded to customers who buy aircraft through-life support products from Boeing.

“Some customers may require more upfront training, whereas others may be wanting more longer term training,” Alteon’s director of marketing, Roei Ganzarski told Australian Aviation.

“Because the aircraft itself will be ground breaking, so must the training its operators will receive, so we’re looking to be more flexible with our training offerings, and modify the training to meet all needs. ”

Multi-crew Licence

Another innovation being explored by Alteon is that of Multi-crew Pilot Licence, or MPL (detailed in Jan/Feb 07 AA).

A 15 month ‘beta’ or trial program has recently been set up at Alteon’s Brisbane facilities that will see trainee pilots trained straight through to first officer standard without having to go through the normal experience and seniority- based processes currently in place.

An initial cadre of six cadet pilots from China’s Xiamen Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines will be trained on Diamond DA-20 GA aircraft fitted with glass cockpits at Brisbane’s Archerfield Airport from late February, before progressing to Alteon’s 737NG simulators at its Brisbane Airport facility. “MPL is game changing,” Roei Ganzarski said. “Global forecasts indicate a demand for pilots that will continue to grow at an explosive rate over the next 20 years. Alteon has responded to this need by creating integrated training solutions that produce jet ready, airline qualified first officers. ” While pilot groups in Australia have questioned whether the MPL process will turn out pilots with sufficient experience for airline operations, Alteon argues that, with the strict oversight the program will receive from ICAO, CASA and other regulatory authorities, a good outcome can be achieved.

“One only has to look back at the outcry from the industry when Boeing went from a three-person cockpit to two,” Sherry Carbary said.

“And then we went from four engines to two engines for long haul operations. We believe MPL is just another step in this process. ” “Alteon instructors, as well as instructors at our partner flight school, Airline Academy Australia, will receive training on the MPL curriculum so they can effectively teach the course,” Ganzarski added.

“Airline Academy Australia instructors spent time in Seattle in training and Alteon instructors also provided training to them in Brisbane.

These were all qualified instructors but the crew-based training approach of the MPL course is new to the typical flight school. ” Alteon’s plan to train a crew of three is unusual even in type rating programs.

Alternating the roles of the crew of three better prepares the MPL trained pilots in airline operations, including the responsibilities of the pilot flying (captain), the pilot monitoring (first officer), and pilot observing (safety officer). It is the third pilot’s role that develops the discipline of Threat and Error Management that ICAO expects to be integrated at every stage of training for the MPL.

In the meantime, Alteon is building up its maintenance and flight attendant training capabilities as well, offering numerous courses worldwide that meet the various CASA, EASA and FAA regulatory standards. While these courses are currently typespecific conversion courses of fairly short duration, Alteon is looking at the possibility of establishing graduate or apprentice-type courses which would give students a qualification on a specific skillset.

“Training is our only business,” Sherry Carbary said in closing. “We will provide training regardless of type of aircraft. ”