Aircraft

Alteon Training is establishing Boeing 787 training centres in Australia, India and Singapore and has ordered more 787 simulators and related equipment from Thales, writes Leithen Francis in Singapore.

The Boeing subsidiary says it is working to “finalise the specific sites for the training suites in Australia” and India. In Singapore, the 787 suite is expected to be sited at a training centre Alteon is building near the city-state’s Changi airport.

Alteon says its priority is to reduce airline customers’ “training-related costs, such as crew down-time, while increasing their operational efficiency by locating our suites close to their base”. In addition, it says, it has ordered nine more Boeing 787 training suites from Thales including full-flight and flat-panel simulators, desktop simulation systems and door trainers, to be installed before mid-2008.

Alteon announced last September it would establish 787 training centres in China, London Gatwick, Seattle and Tokyo and aimed to have six 787 centres ready for the aircraft’s entry into service in 2008 although the latest announcement, seen as a bid to appease Qantas and Singapore Airlines (SIA), brings the total to seven.

Qantas last December agreed to order 45 787-8/9s. Later, Alteon president Pat Gaines said the company was talking to Qantas about establishing a joint-venture partnership to build a 787 training centre. Qantas’s training facilities are in Sydney and Melbourne while Alteon has a training centre in Brisbane.

SIA announced last month that it had signed a letter of intent to purchase 20 787-9s.

Air India said last year it would order 20 787-8s as well as Boeing 777s and 737-800s. The Indian government said Boeing had agreed to site four full-flight simulators in the country.