Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
Northwest Airlines and KLM have expanded their alliance to include marketing of training on the Netherlands carrier's flight simulator fleet through Northwest Aerospace Training (NATCO). The agreement provides third-party customers with access to a total of 32 simulators and flight training devices owned by NATCO and KLM and covering a wide range of Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft.
The two organisations have also entered the arena of joint simulator purchases, reaching an agreement with CAE Electronics for an Airbus A320 full-flight simulator for NATCO and a Boeing 737-800 simulator for KLM and its subsidiary Transavia. Both will be delivered in November 1998.
Under their co-operation agreement, NATCO will market spare capacity on the eight full-flight simulators in KLM's Flight Crew Training Centre at Schiphol-East in Amsterdam. NATCO operates independently of Northwest and has an established marketing apparatus, selling half of its training capacity to third-party customers.
NATCO operates 20 full-flight simulators and four flight training devices at its Eagan, Minnesota, base, as well as a Boeing 747-400 machine based with Canadian Airlines in Vancouver and a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 simulator based with the manufacturer at Long Beach, California.
In addition to the A320 device just ordered, NATCO is awaiting delivery of a Saab 340B simulator on order from CAE, and is planning to buy a machine for the Aero International (Regional) Avro RJ. Both aircraft are operated by Northwest Airlink regional affiliate Mesaba.
Source: Flight International
