By this time next year, there could be more than 100 students living in residence at the Fredericton International Airport and learning to fly in 10 training aircraft.

"It would effectively become one of the largest flight training schools in Canada -- virtually overnight," said Mike Doiron, president and chief executive officer of the Moncton Flight College, in an interview Tuesday.

The flight school is called MFC Fredericton and it’s a franchise of the Moncton Flight College.

Doiron said the Moncton Flight College has a $60-million deal to train pilots for China Eastern Airline and Air China.

"Over the first two years in operation, you are looking at between $10 million and $16 million in revenue in the (Fredericton) economy," he said.

"Over the summer, you are going to see an initial group of 23 (students) starting at the end of this month. There will be a followup group at the end of August of 23 (students) as well," he said.

Doiron said the Fredericton flight school will start with six staff members and could have as many as 20 staff members once it gets more students.

Mike Tilley, president of Saint John-based Canlink Aviation, is running the Fredericton flight school as a franchise of the Moncton Flight College.

Canlink Aviation helped the Moncton Flight College negotiate the deal with the Chinese airlines to train their pilots.

"We are pretty excited about it," said Tilley. "We are dealing in a very, very hot market (China) and a very hot sector (aviation) within that market."

It’s estimated that China needs 1,200 new airline pilots every year.

"There are 50 airports under construction in China right now," said Tilley.

Canlink Aviation is leasing administration and classroom space in the main terminal of the Fredericton International Airport, where the old airport administration offices were located.

"We’ve also leased the old Fredericton Flying Club hangar," said Tilley. "We have done a big renovation job there. We built a residence that is further down the hangar line. We just accepted delivery of the residence today."

That residence facility was built by Fredericton-based Maple Leaf Homes, said Tilley. It has a common room and 42 beds in phase one, he said.

Phase two of the residence will be built this fall and phase three will be built next year, for a total of 120 beds.

"We will build it as student demand warrants," said Tilley.

David Innes, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Fredericton Airport Authority, said there’s already a strong training program at the airport and the flight college will add to it.

"This is a really interesting initiative," he said in a telephone interview from Paris, France, where he is attending an international airshow.

"It is really good. We are the landlord essentially to this operation. We have made investments in property and a hangar."

Innes said the airport will have to adjust to additional traffic created by the flight school.

"We are likely going to see a doubling of takeoffs and landings at the airport in a very short period of time, in as little as a year or two," he said.

One of the reasons the Moncton Flight College expanded into Fredericton was the impact of the growing number of training flights at the Moncton airport, said Doiron.

Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside welcomed the new flight school.

"I think it is a wonderful opportunity," he said. "It is going to create some great economic benefit to Fredericton and the airport."

One of the reasons why Canlink Aviation picked the Fredericton International Airport to operate a new multimillion-dollar flight school is because it has room to expand.

The airport has plans to build an aerospace business park within its boundaries.

"The ability to handle a larger business if we grow to that size really helped us make a decision (for) Fredericton," said Mike Tilley, president of Canlink Aviation.

Tilley said his company looked at airports across Atlantic Canada before picking Fredericton.

The new aerospace business park only exists on paper right now.

But Tilley is thinking of the future and projections that China needs 1,200 new airline pilots a year.

"For every pilot, they need six maintenance engineers," he said. "Who knows what we can get into?"