CAE expands its training network in Latin America

In its bid to expand its pilot-training footprint in Latin America, CAE has signed a 10-year services agreement (based on expected simulator usage) with LAN to provide training on Boeing 737-200 and Airbus A320 full-flight simulators beginning this year and on the Boeing 767-300ER commencing in the last quarter of 2005.

The total value of the contract, together with third-party revenues, is expected to be C$40 million. Training will take place in Santiago, Chile, at LAN?s centre, which CAE has also signed an agreement to acquire.

Arturo Le Blanc and Nicolás Silva were the in-house lawyers of LAN working on the deal. Cae was represented by in its in-house laywer Marc Levesque and by Alessandri y Compañía through partner Felipe Cousiño and Eduardo Urrejola, Pedro Veas, Felipe Yáñez (tax law) and Camilo Cortés (labour law).

?More and more airlines are turning to CAE for their pilot-training needs,? said Jeff Roberts, CAE?s group president for civil simulation and training. ?Demand for air travel is rising in Latin America, so increasing our presence here makes good business sense. We?ll be able to provide even greater value to airlines in the region, as they strive to improve safety and efficiency.?

In addition to the B737-200 currently housed in the training centre, CAE will install two full-flight simulators?an A320 built in 1998 and a B767-300ER built in 1992. The three simulators will address LAN?s training requirements along with those of third-party customers. The A320 device will form part of the CAE-Airbus training cooperative, and the B767-300ER will be the only one of its kind in South America.

?This initiative with CAE is important to us, because it will allow us to concentrate on our core business while we maintain our focus on providing world-class training for our crews and achieving significant efficiencies. With this agreement, our pilots get the best training possible at home and on some of the most sophisticated equipment on the market,? said Marco Jofre, LAN?s senior vice president, operations and engineering.

The LAN alliance offers a vast route network, reaching a large number of destinations throughout the world with service to more than 60 passenger and cargo destinations in South America, North America, the South Pacific and Europe. It is part of the oneworld alliance with Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia and Qantas.

CAE?s global network of training centres has more than 100 full-flight simulators in service in more than 20 locations worldwide.

CAE is a leading provider of simulation technologies and integrated training services to airlines, aircraft manufacturers, defence forces, and marine customers worldwide. The company has annual revenues in excess of C$1 billion, with manufacturing operations and training facilities in 18 countries on four continents.