Regional Airline Academy Announces Opening Of New Flight Training School at Williams Gateway Airport and Promotes Employees To Run It In Phoenix, Arizona

Deland, FL (PRWEB) July 14, 2004

Regional Airline Academy (RAA), a leading Florida-based flight training school, has opened a new training facility at Williams Gateway Airport in Phoenix.

Heading up the facility will be Grant Craft of Daytona Beach, who has been promoted to Center Manager, and Michael Hutz, also of Daytona, has been promoted to Director of Maintenance.

“Michael and Grant have been intensely involved in our Deland, Fl operation. We are extremely confident in their abilities to continue success in the Phoenix, AZ area.” said Fred Dewitt, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

With new growth on the horizon, RAA is preparing for the influx of individuals interested in flight training school.

“This new flight school is part of a national corporate expansion initiative that will virtually double our size,” stated Mike Yocum, president of Regional Airline Academy. “We feel fortunate that the demand for our career-oriented Flight Officer School and other programs has warranted such strong growth.”

RAA will launch the first local class at its Mesa facility on June 7. Flight operations will begin in July with four Piper trainers. This fleet is scheduled to grow to 20 airplanes by year’s end. Plans include hiring as many as 100 employees in the next 5 years and building classroom space on the flight line. The business is expected to generate an economic impact in the Mesa area of $8-9 million a year.

“Our research indicates that Mesa was the right place for our expansion,” explains Pat McSweeney, Regional Airline Academy’s Vice President of Airline Training. “The excellent availability of air space and near-perfect weather conditions for flying here, combined with the strong demand for top-quality flight training in the western United States, were key factors in our decision.”

The new flight school has received a warm welcome. “Regional Airline Academy is another jewel in Arizona’s aerospace crown,” said Arizona State Department of Commerce Director Gilbert Jimenez. Richard Mulligan, Mesa’s economic development director, added, “Mesa is poised to become an aviation hub and we believe that businesses like RAA will make that a reality.”

Another fact of Regional Airline Academy’s expansion program is its recent cooperative agreement with CAE, the Canadian flight simulator manufacturing and training giant, to provide seamless flight training for students who are serious about careers as airline pilots. The CAE-RAA program takes students all the way from starting at zero-hour training through an elite nine-week Flight Officer School that includes CRJ, ERJ, and Dornier 328 Jet type ratings.

Regional Airline Academy provides the nation’s premier Part 142 aviation training, dedicated to preparing students for jobs as career airline pilots. RAA’s schools offer state-of-the-art training with large aircraft fleets and the latest software and flight training devices available. For more information, visit RAA at http://www.raajobs.com.