The small number is the permanent FIs. I understand they have casual/contract ones as well, but you would have thought the gold plated cost would have bought something better than instructors on zero hours contracts or paid only when they fly. Seems no better than a lot of flying clubs, does it ?
With no sim centre there anymore, all the SFIs have gone. Feeback from past students was that the sims were so obsolete (30 year old 737 classics) that when the jacks failed there were just no replacement parts avaiable. Seems the plan is to use whatever they inherited when they bought Oxford until it is no longer usable, then move elsewhere.
There was just the one fair weather base in the USA near Phoenix - I think they started in Florida years ago and headed west over the years. They were on one side of Phoenix then ended up on the other (I think finally at Goodyea). So maybe we're at 5 bases in total, but over a period of some years, and consecutively, not concurrently ? I don't think there was ever anything modular at Gloucester - if there was you are talking about 20 years ago or more.
The comment about Madrid and Brussels is very interesting. The 1960s infrastructure (classrooms, accomodation) at Oxford is in a very poor state. Most significantly there has been no change or improvement to it since CAE took over in 2012. Madrid and Brussels are based at CAE sim centres in modern buildings. The additional cost of utilising rooms there for classes is low.
Looks like they are running down the groundschool presence at Oxford if the earliest you can get in there is 6 months ahead ? It's all branded as CAE, not Oxford any more. The airport now has the focus is on bizjets. They would like, as all airports do when they get the bigger boys in, to be rid of the irritating fleet of little training aeroplanes that get in the way.
Looks like their their days at Oxford are numbered. Maybe the whole process will be rapidly accelerated after 31st October ?
It would explain why they are hedging their bets with Madrid and Brussels.
If the airport does get renamed renamed the proposed London Oxford Boris Johnson, my prediction is that bizjet movements number would be so high as to make further training there impractical.......:-)