IATA-strategic partner, Airport College International, recently teamed up with Merlintech FZE in the UAE, choosing the long-standing Finnish company with Middle East expertise to
represent the college’s eLearning services in the Gulf.

Finnish strong men do not only train weights, they also train the aviation industry in all aspects of airline, logistics and ground handling. Merlintech FZE, run by Reima and Kim Okkola, looks
back on over 40 years of experience in business relationships in the Middle East, and now counts Airport College in its portfolio of clients.
Airport College and Merlintech FZE agreed their cooperation at the end of November, and Merlintech FZE will represent the college’s eLearning services both in the UAE as well as in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, thus reaching out to a market potential of more than 500,000 aviation industry employees in the Middle East. 
Kim Okkola, Merlintech FZE’s CEO, said in the press statement: “We strongly believe that we can help airlines, ground handling companies, logistics service providers to save training costs
without compromising the quality of training,” says Merlintech FZE CEO Kim Okkola.
Pertti Mero, CEO of Airport College International, points to the dramatic growth expected in the industry and in the Gulf region: “Global air traffic is expected to double in the next 20
years, creating millions of new jobs. The aviation industry faces a huge challenge to deliver training for new workforce. The industry needs to attract new talents by providing new training
methods and forward-looking career paths. At the same time, the training should be relevant, user-friendly and cost-effective,” and is convinced that “Together we can provide high quality and
efficient training solutions.”

Go East!
Airport College’s Pertti Mero and Ari Ketola have recently completed an intensive Far East tour, too. Mid-November, they were in Hong Kong, discussing their training courses with the local
Jardine Aviation Academy and Jardine Ground Handling HR.
Earlier that month, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BAGS Ground Services in Bangkok,Thailand, thus cementing a cooperation to promote online training programmes to aviation
industry employees in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
Prior to that, they were in the Philippines, talking to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), and a number of ground handlers about their online training.
Their Far East trip had originally kicked off in Korea and Japan at the end of October.
With each trip, Airport College works on expanding its service offer, and already provides courses in Japanese, Korean and Chinese, in addition to English, Finnish and Swedish.
Interested to find your location’s representative? Check out: https://airportcollege.com/locations/

Brigitte Gledhill

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