Times & Transcript | Metro Moncton
As published on page A4 on October 21, 2005

Flight college Sinks $60M deal
Moncton school will train hundreds of Chinese commercial pilots

By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff

The Moncton Flight College is close to sealing a deal that would see hundreds of Chinese commercial pilots train at their facility.

The agreement is worth $60 million to the newly renovated and expanded flying school and represents the largest civilian pilot training contract ever awarded to a flight training school in .

"We’re pretty excited about this," Mike Doiron, MFC principal and CEO, said in a phone interview from Beijing .

"A lot of people have put a lot of hard work into this."

Doiron said the only barrier remaining is an inspection of the MFC campus by the Civil Aviation Authority of China, scheduled for February.

Doiron does not anticipate any problems with the inspection. As MFC trains pilots from all over the world, it has gone through such scrutiny before.

"With the CAAC coming in February, we should have our first students by late March, early April."

The school is now negotiating to lease a medium-sized turbo-prop training aircraft on which the students will hone their skills.

The memorandum of understanding signed between the MFC and the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics calls for the training of up to 100 pilots per year for five years.

The college has been training pilots since 1929 and has taught more than 15,000 pilots to fly. It is one of the top producers of commercial pilots in , graduating about 120 students every year.

The contract with the Chinese university will double MFC’s enrolment.

The school can handle the jump in enrolment, Doiron said. It recently renovated and expanded most its campus and training facilities with the help of ACOA, including a new students’ residence. The CEO said this deal is a direct result of the recent improvements, and there will likely be more growth to come.

" alone needs to train approximately 1,200 pilots a year," Doiron said.

Training facilities in southeast Asia can’t handle the number of students needed to fill all the available positions.

The Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, established in 1952, has graduated more than 70,000 aerospace graduates. In the 1990s, it established a flying college to match the increasing demand for pilot training in , partnering with colleges and universities around the world.

This will be its first joint venture with a Canadian flying school.

The deal was forged with the help of CanLink Global, a firm that helps companies evaluate and pursue international opportunities.

Mike Tilly of CanLink credited the quality of the school for impressing the Chinese.

"There’s clearly a demand and interest in MFC’s history," he said.

"But their modern training techniques, excellent safety record, state-of-the-art training facilities and extremely low pilot drop-out rate are what really set them apart."

Minister of Training and Employment Development for New Brunswick , Margaret-Ann Blaney, witnessed the signing of the memorandum.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our province and we are very excited for the college and our community," Blaney said.