In line with its upbeat long-term sales outlook, the world's leading aircraft maker is expecting to see a surge in demand for its pilot-training products and services in China, and will increase its local facilities to address the growing demand when needed.

That is the explicit message from a senior executive of a Boeing Co sub-institute which focuses on pilot training.

"Our latest 20-year market outlook for China shows that 2,400 new airplanes will be requested by local airlines over that time," John Marino, chief representative of Alteon Training Asia LLC's Beijing office, told China Daily recently.

"Under such circumstances, we expect to see a rising demand for pilot-training programmes from local carriers, and we will address the surging market by extending our local training facilities and capabilities in China at the right time."

Alteon is wholly owned by Boeing, offering pilot-training products and services for carriers throughout the world.

Located in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, is one of Alteon's 21 training centres worldwide. It serves not only Chinese airliners, but also overseas carriers, such as those from South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

But rather than expand the existing Kunming operation to cater for more demand, Boeing will adopt a more "client-friendly" strategy to set up further training bases in other major Chinese cities, allowing airlines easier access, Marino said.

"Instead of having all of our clients travel a long way to come here to Kunming in the future, we will build new training facilities nearer to some of them, maybe in Beijing or maybe in Shanghai," he said. "It is a user-friendly approach to address the market demand."

As to whether there is any timetable now for the creation of the new facilities, the US manager said the specific proposal will be tightly interconnected with future orders and deliveries. No timetable is available presently.

Since the training service is closely related to actual plane deliveries, Alteon had less people in for training during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak earlier this year as many carriers delayed their deliveries.

"The SARS outbreak did, to some extent, affect our business performance. But there is no negative impact for our business in the long run," Marino said.

Boeing and FlightSafety International (FSI) formed a joint venture called FlightSafety Boeing Training International in 1997. Boeing acquired all of FSI's interests in FlightSafety Boeing in 2002.

Re-named Alteon last year, the company now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Boeing within Boeing Commercial Airplanes' Commercial Aviation Services (CAS).

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