US technology and defence company L3Harris announced at the end of March that it had completed the sale of its Commercial Aviation Solutions (CAS) division to private equity firm TJC for $800m.
The CAS division will now trade as a standalone business named Acron Aviation, with bases in the UK, US and Thailand.
In the UK, L3Harris operated out of two locations, comprising a full flight simulator (FFS) centre in Crawley near Gatwick, and a flight training academy at Cranfield Airport in Bedfordshire. According to a statement issued by the rebranded Acron Aviation at the end of March, the Crawley base will continue to operate, providing type rating, LPC and refresher training to partner airlines, alongside APS MCC, CRM, type rating instructor and examiner programmes. The future of the Cranfield Airport flight training base, however, is less certain and it isn’t included in the current list of Acron Aviation’s training bases.
Additionally, Acron’s statement makes no mention of continuation of ab-initio flight training programmes and FTN understands that the company is not currently inducting new cadets to the Cranfield site, but is completing the training of those already enrolled.
Acron’s other centres in Miami, Florida and Bangkok, Thailand are likewise currently concentrating on FFS-based training programmes for partner airlines rather than ab-initio flight training.
Speaking with a representative from the company, FTN was told that there were no plans currently in place to offer ab-initio training in the UK, although didn’t rule the option out in future. It therefore seems probable that the UK may shortly to lose one of only four schools currently offering whitetail integrated commercial pilot training programmes – the other three being Leading Edge Aviation at Oxford, Skyborne Airline Academy in Gloucestershire and Stapleford Flight Academy in Essex. A fifth integrated flight training academy, CAE, is currently delivering an integrated Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) training programme exclusively for easyJet and does not offer whitetail programmes.
L3Harris’ Cranfield Airport training base first opened in July 2019. The academy was previously based at Bournemouth Airport, initially as CTC Aviation before being sold to L3 Communications in 2015, which then became L3Harris in 2018 and relocated to Cranfield a year later.
