Mercury Air Cargo, along with representatives from Cargo Network Services Inc. (CNS), celebrated the grand opening of its West Coast Training center at a Los Angeles facility on December 9, 2015.

Mercury Air Cargo is proud to be hosting CNS and IATA cargo training courses at the Avion Drive facility in Los Angeles. This is the first time CNS and IATA have brought their training courses to the west coast (the only other training facility in the U.S. is at the CNS headquarters in Miami). Additionally, two of Mercury's own employees have been IATA-certified to serve as part of the instructor faculty at the training center.

This training is made possible through the State of California's Employment Training Panel (ETP), a program that supports job creation and retention through training. The ETP recently awarded CNS subsidy funding to establish a training facility in California. The intent of the ETP funding is to assist California air cargo businesses and their employees learn new skills to help improve international trade and export opportunities.

CNS-designed courses specifically for the air cargo industry will be scheduled monthly on a variety of cargo related topics.

Mercury Aviation Services Manager Rula Fakhouri is one of two Mercury employees to be IATA-certified to provide training at the facility. Fakhouri was also instrumental in putting the Mercury facility on the CNS radar when they were looking for a site. Given IATA's trusted global reputation, she said it is no easy feat to be considered as a candidate for partnership with them.

"It's a recognition of Mercury's stellar reputation for customer service and training that IATA selected Mercury for their West Coast training facility," she said.

Training Manager Robert Cook is the other Mercury employee to become IATA certified. Both Cook and Fakhouri have extensive backgrounds in the airline industry, and their certification involved participating in a lengthy interview process. While details are still being finalized, Fakhouri expects to provide training on the transportation of live animals and perishables, and Cook will most likely provide training on the transporting of dangerous goods.

For more information on training and courses, please visit the CNS training webpage at: http://www.cnsc.net/training/Pages/losangeles-training-center.aspx.