The expansion of private and commercial aviation in China has dropped new clients in the lap of a Ventura County flight school. Channel Islands Aviation in Camarillo has become an exclusive U.S. partner for Shanghai Avieye General Aviation to train its pilots to fly commercial aircraft. Sarah Oberman Bartush, chief marketing officer at Channel Islands and manager of its flight school, said the initial class of Chinese students will start this fall and number about five. Later classes will have up to 20 students for the 10-month program. “This will open new opportunities to bring more international students to the region,” she said. Bartush learned that Shanghai Avieye was seeking a U.S. partner through a webinar. She applied and had a visit from representatives of the Chinese company earlier this year. Shanghai Avieye selected Channel Islands because of its West Coast location in the L.A. area and long-standing association with Cessna, Bartush said. The company, located at Camarillo Airport, has offered training as a Cessna Pilot Center since the company’s founding nearly 40 years ago. Channel Islands has hired additional flight instructors and purchased a Cessna 172 Skyhawk to bring its total training fleet up to 12 aircraft. “It is making sure we have enough assets and talent to teach these incoming students,” Bartush said. China represents one of the fastest-growing markets in general and commercial aviation, and has become a magnet for U.S. and other foreign aviation businesses. Still, the industry there is years behind the United States in terms of airport infrastructure as well as the number of aircraft and pilots. A study by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier Inc. forecast China’s demand for new aircraft as ranking second only to North America’s and that the number of airports would increase to 230 this year from 170 five years ago. Robert Rockmaker, chief executive of the Flight School Association of North America in Allentown, Pa., said that Chinese students coming to the U.S. for flight training has been a trend for at least a dozen years and will continue to grow because of the cost-effectiveness and the lack of programs in China. The U.S. has about 1,600 flight schools compared with a dozen or so in China, he said. “As time goes on, they will develop their own flight schools but for now it’s in its infancy,” he said. After two months in China, taking lessons in both Chinese and English, the students will come to Camarillo for additional classroom training approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. They also will have hands-on lessons in the Skyhawk. All the students will be background-checked by the Transportation Security Administration. At completion of the program, they will earn their private pilot certification, instrument rating certification and commercial pilot certification as well as log 250 hours in the cockpit. “When they learn how to fly at commercial pilot standards, they can build on the experience and be hired to fly in China,” Bartush said. – Mark R. Madler