Boeing to Consolidate Flight Training Facilities in North America

Boeing has decided to consolidate its flight training capabilities in North America – including its 787 flight and maintenance training – at the Boeing Flight Services training campus in Miami.

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. With this consolidation, Miami will be established as the pro forma flight training location for Boeing in the Americas.

"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.

Over the past several years Boeing has consolidated and relocated a number of flight training campuses, including four in the United States.

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 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.