Hainan Airlines Group aims to acquire a majority stake in Flying Dragon, a Chinese government-owned general aviation company that plans to open a new pilot training academy with Diamond DA40 single-engined trainers in September.
Hainan has tentatively agreed to acquire a majority stake in Flying Dragon from Harbin Aircraft Industry, but the deal needs approval from the Hainan board, say industry sources. Harbin, a subsidiary of China Aviation Industries II (AVIC), will retain a minority stake.
Flying Dragon currently offers a variety of general aviation services, including training with a fleet of Harbin Y-11s, Harbin Y-12s and Eurocopter AS350 helicopters based outside Harbin. Sources say the company has recently taken delivery of four DA40s, which are now sitting at a new Flying Dragon base at Binzhou city in Shandong province and will be used to train commercial airline pilots. A Hainan source says the new school in Shandong may be established formally after Flying Dragon is restructured.
A Flying Dragon source says the DA40s are to be put into operation in September, when an initial batch of 13 ab initio students will begin training. The source says the school aims to eventually train 100 to 200 students a year, but has not yet made plans to acquire additional aircraft.
Flying Dragon will be the fourth flying school certificated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to train new commercial airline pilots joining the Beijing Pan Am Aviation Academy, the China Southern Western Australia Flying College and the CAAC Flying College.
Brendan Sobie / Singapore
Source: Flight International
