Pilot Training Network to start in Rostock-Laage

Pilot Training Network GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH, is to relocate the activities of its trainee pilots for the IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) phase to Rostock-Laage, considering the new training centre and modern, airline-oriented infrastructure of the airport to be ideally tailored to the needs of the flying school - for further information on the airport Rostock-Laage, please visit www.rostock-airport.com

Rostock-Laage-Güstrow GmbH has reason to celebrate: following intensive negotiations lasting several months, the airport operator has succeeded in winning the bid for Pilot Training Network (PTN), a fully owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH, which will now operate out of Rostock-Laage in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The move will involve the largest-ever setting up of a new customer at the airport.

Trainee pilots with the Pilot Training Network will soon be learning under even better conditions. Starting from 2010, FlightCrew Academy and InterCockpit, two flight training schools which are to merge within Pilot Training Network, will be handling the practical side of ATPL training for airline pilots at Rostock-Laage and Vero Beach (Florida, USA), instead of, as previously, at Zadar in Croatia.

The second part of flight training – the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR training) phase, will be relocated to Germany. In Germany, all commercial flights made by aircraft with a maximum permissible take-off weight of 14 tonnes (or more than 19 passengers) must be operated in accordance with Instrument Flight Rules. In addition to a new training centre, Rostock-Laage Airport – where Eurofighter pilots from the German armed forces also train – offers a modern infrastructure and optimum capacity requirements, ideally suited to the processes of PTN flight training schools. Four further airports are located nearby in the area around Rostock-Laage, which can serve as destinations for IFR training flights during the courses.

Maria Muller, Managing Director of Flughafen Rostock-Laage-Güstrow GmbH, is delighted to be entering into such a new and important partnership: ‘We are extremely proud that PTN, too, has recognised the major benefits offered by Rostock-Laage. We have put all our energies into winning this decision and that has paid off. The cooperation between ministries, local authorities, employment agencies, companies and the airport’s shareholders worked perfectly. Through our combined strengths, we were able to impress and convince the customer. The relocation here of a fully owned flight training subsidiary of Lufthansa serves to strengthen the airport immensely. Over the next few weeks, our team will be doing everything necessary to ensure that all PTN’s requirements are met, thus enabling trainee pilots and the company's employees to work under the best of conditions and to feel at home here in our beloved Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
For further information on the airport Rostock-Laage, please visit www.rostock-airport.com

Rostock-Laage airport (IATA: RLG; ICAO: ETNL) is the largest passenger airport in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The facility established for the German Federal Armed, has been used by Flughafen Rostock-Laage GmbH as a regional airport since 1993. Around 60 of the airport’s 1,000 hectares are reserved for civil operations. This combination of military and civil operations is unique in the German air transport sector. Thanks to its ideal location, the regional airport is becoming an increasingly attractive gateway for Baltic Sea holidaymakers and business travellers. From a geographical viewpoint, Rostock also serves as an ideal logistics hub for many destinations, for instance in Scandinavia, the Baltic states, Southern and Eastern Europe. Licensed for 24-hour operation, the airport can handle all types of freight aircrafts up to jumbo freighters and provides around-the-clock service, whatever the weather.

About Pilot Training Network

Pilot Training GmbH was incorporated in 2001 as a fully owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH. Based at Frankfurt am Main airport, on the grounds of the Lufthansa Flight Training Center, Pilot Training Network operates within the busiest centre for air transport in Germany.
The company has successfully run the InterCockpit flight school since its establishment. In April 2008, Pilot Training Network, together with Lufthansa CityLine and Germanwings, set up a second flying school – Flightcrew Academy. Their aim in doing so was to offer a cooperation concept for the even more specific training of airline pilots.

For further information, please visit www.pilottraining-network.de