MPS had a very busy month in May. In this blog I will quickly recap the two events we attended and provide some insight into both.
The 24th World Aviation Training Summit (WATS 2022) was hosted by Halldale in Orlando, Florida, USA in the first week of May. Global colleagues gathered for the fitting theme of ‘’Enabling the World Airline Industry.” This is the first in-person show since the start of COVID-19 where a large group of MPS was able to attend and host a booth.
Five members of the MPS team were present at the show: Myself, Erik Jennes, Chief Commercial Officer, Jean-Francois (JF) Tessier, VP of Global Sales, Martijn Niekerk, Chief Technical Officer, and Ana Blanco-Persiani, our new Latin America Sales Director. We all enjoyed the wonderful in-person networking atmosphere and held many productive meetings with those in the industry.
The three-day pilot training conference began with an informative roundtable discussion with leaders from major and regional carriers discussing future challenges and solutions. Speakers included Bryan Quigley, Senior Vice President Flight Operations of United Airlines and Brad Lambert, Vice President Flight Operations of Frontier Airlines. Main topics focused on technology, recovery after the pandemic and human factors.
I personally spoke on day one of the event about FCS: The Task-to-Tool Approach. My presentation educated the audience on the Task-to-Tool approach, the usage and identification of the FSTD Capability Signature (FCS) and its benefits to industry. I also discussed the Blended Learning approach. All will support higher efficiency and quality of training, better availability of the correct training tools, lowering cost and optimizing the way aviation training should be structured in the future.
Last week, I also attended the 2022 Americas Aviation & LLCs Summit hosted by CAPA in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. This event was the first time that MPS participated in a CAPA event and I thoroughly enjoyed the networking opportunity and interactions. I had the privilege to meet many senior aviation and transport executives from across North and South America and had very thought-provoking conversations.
Like WATS, this was a three-day conference with a very full agenda. Speakers included Barry Biffle, Frontier Airlines President and CEO, Stephen Jones, Flair Airlines President and CEO, and Matt Klein, Spirit Airlines Executive Vice President and CCO, as well as disruptive thinkers like Mark Moore, CEO at Whisper Aero and Nikhil Goel, founder of Uber Air. An innovation roadshow by Flyr Labs also took place. On the final day of the event, the topic of discussion focused on changing travel patterns and the challenge this presents for airline.
Overall, both the Halldale and CAPA events were a fantastic addition to the MPS agenda for May. Our team has a very busy schedule for the rest of the year, including booths at Halldale events and attendance at additional CAPA events. I look forward to many more opportunities to discuss the solutions on how to deal with the pilot shortage and the role MPS can play in that.
