Boeing expands Crawley Flight Training Centre
Boeing is enhancing its flight training services at Crawley near London's Gatwick Airport with the unveiling of a newly installed 737 MAX 8 simulator and the construction of a new annex to accommodate growing demand for pilot and technician training.
Sir Michael Arthur (right), president of Boeing Europe and managing director of Boeing UK and Ireland said: “Demand for Boeing’s products and services is strong from our customers in Europe and on into the Middle East and Africa.
“It is crucial for our customers that we are able to meet this demand locally and we are delighted to grow further our pilot and technician training offering in Crawley as part of our new services business unit.
This also continues our growth in the United Kingdom to support local customers and enhances further Boeing’s commitment to the UK and its economic prosperity.”
The Boeing Flight Services Centre in Crawley opened in September 2004 and trains pilots and technicians from airlines across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The current 4,900 square metre facility houses several classrooms, fixed training devices and eight full-flight simulators. Once the annex is built it will be the largest such Boeing site outside the United States. As part of the exclusive 787 training suite at Crawley, the campus features fully integrated desktop training systems (DTS) classrooms, and advanced flight training devices.
On site at Crawley there are four 787 full flight simulators (three 787-8 and one 787-9) as well as full flight simulators for the 777, Next Generation 737 and the newly-installed 737 MAX 8 full flight simulator. In addition, the centre offers fixed training devices for the 787-8, 757, 767, Next Generation 737 and the 737 MAX 8 as well as training on Boeing 717 and 757-200 full flight simulators at the nearby Burgess Hill facility.
Boeing Flight Services is part of the new Boeing Global Services business unit, which was established earlier this month. With a focus on innovative services in engineering, digital aviation and analytics as well as supply chain logistics and training support, Boeing Global Services delivers agile, cost-competitive solutions so customers can reduce costs, drive efficiency and optimize operations.
Direct Boeing employment in the UK, to support local airline, military and security customers, has doubled since 2011, to 2,200. The company continues to grow, recruiting on average a new employee per day. Direct spending with UK suppliers has tripled over the last six years to £2.1 billion, supporting an estimated 16,500 jobs in the tier one UK supply chain, a rise of 80% over the same period.
Additional growth is planned in the years to come. In the past year Boeing has announced plans for its first European manufacturing plant in Sheffield, a commercial aviation maintenance hangar at Gatwick airport and the company is working with the Ministry of Defence on plans for a Royal Air Force P-8A Poseidon facility at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. Together, these developments will create several hundred additional jobs in the UK at Boeing, the company’s partners and in the supply chain.