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Chinese pilots to get own campus
- IASCO Flight Training, a flight school in Redding that trains pilots for four Chinese airlines, is hoping to make the north state its permanent home. The school opened a temporary campus on Lockheed Drive across from Redding Municipal Airport in February 2009.
With the school's enrollment and workforce more than doubling since it opened two years ago, IASCO and the city are negotiating a deal that would build a permanent campus with dormitories. According to Anne Marie Guay, IASCO's president and general manager, the aim to have the campus open within two years.
On April 5, the Redding City Council approved a letter of intent with IASCO, which directed Redding Airports Manager Rod Dinger to explore and discuss the potential for a new campus, which Dinger said could cost up to$10 million. The final decision would have to come from the council, which needs to approve the investment.
Under one option the city would build the hangar-office portion of the campus next to the Redding Jet Center and IASCO would lease it back long-term. The city is also looking at three options for the dormitories:
1. IASCO would build the dorms.
2. The city would partner with IASCO to construct housing.
3. The city would build the dormitories.
IASCO expects to have 130 students by May 1 but has been approved for 150 by the Civil Aviation Authority of China, Guay said. A second campus opened in Napa already has 30 students.
The pilots are trained for Shanghai and Sichuan Airlines (the original clients) as well as Air China and Shandong airlines. Dinger said the economic impact from IASCO exceeds $12 milThe airport receives in excess of $56,000 annually from renting aircraft tie-down space to the school, and additional income from fuel fees.
Boeing has a market outlook that suggests the need for more than 466,000 pilots and nearly 600,000 technicians worldwide during the next 20 years, Guay said.
Source: redding.com
