Boeing

With various local dignitaries and community leaders looking on, FlightSafety Boeing Training International today announced that the "city of opportunities" has been selected as one of the world's premier aviation training sites.

The $100 million Latin American Training Hub here becomes the first all-new, U.S. development of FlightSafety Boeing, and a key part of the company's expanding global network of large-scale aviation training centers.

Scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2000, the Latin American Training Hub will be the world's largest non-airline-owned flight training facility. Located adjacent to the northwest corner of the Miami International Airport, the FlightSafety Boeing Latin American Hub has an estimated annual economic value of $35 million.

"Latin America is projected to be the fastest-growing market for air travel over the next 20 years, and Miami is emerging as the leading airline training location," said Wake Smith, president - FlightSafety Boeing. "As the world's largest airline training organization, FlightSafety Boeing is delighted to have a prominent presence here which will enable us to serve Latin America and beyond in a world-class manner."

Smith also announced that The Haskell Company of Jacksonville, Fla., would serve as the developer and contractor for the new FlightSafety Boeing Miami facility.

FlightSafety Boeing currently has 15 training facilities throughout the world, including its North American Hub south of Seattle. The joint venture, owned 50-50 by The Boeing Company and FlightSafety International, has announced plans to establish its European Training Hub in London. Future growth plans also include one hub in the Asia-Pacific region.

In selecting Miami, the world's largest commercial flight and maintenance training provider made customer convenience and value its primary criteria for the Hub location. Smith said the Latin American Hub responds to market demand, and helps fulfill the FlightSafety Boeing mission of providing flight crew and maintenance technician training closer to customer locations.

"Our Latin American and European training hubs are moving us forward toward assembling the world's first truly global training-delivery system," Smith said. "On behalf of my 500 FlightSafety Boeing colleagues, we are thrilled to deliver commercial airplane training solutions internationally. And we are committed to supporting our customers' growing requirements for the world's most comprehensive and highest quality aviation training."

Smith explained that the FlightSafety Boeing Latin American Hub is expected to include:

• An estimated 115,000 square feet of space, with potential to expand to 143,000 square feet.
• Eighteen full-flight simulators, which are used for pilot training.
• Four-story-high "bays" to house the simulators, which replicate all of the sensations of flight.
• A computer-based training lab with approximately 30 workstations.
• Full maintenance-technician-training capability.
• Fourteen classrooms and two laboratories to support training on a variety of commercial airplanes of 100 seats or more.

The FlightSafety Boeing Latin American Training Hub will start with 80-plus permanent employees and instructors, and is expected to attract approximately 7,000 pilots and 3,000 maintenance technicians annually. The Hub's highly skilled, technical professionals will be compensated at competitive market rates. The training customers will be from airlines throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States.

FlightSafety Boeing, with $200 million in assets and plans for rapid expansion, was formed in 1997. It is the official training organization for the commercial airplane unit of Boeing, which is the world's largest producer of commercial jetliners. FlightSafety Boeing, which provides the industry's most comprehensive aviation training services, supports operators of Boeing, Douglas, Airbus and Fokker aircraft. More information on FlightSafety Boeing can be obtained at www.flightsafetyboeing.com.