Government-owned China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Corporation (CASC) said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Lufthansa Flight Training to open the new school in the second half of 2007.

It said the school will be capable of training 400 pilots per year, initially for Hainan and Shenzhen.
Hainan has been looking to set up its own school for several years to ensure it has enough pilots to meet its expansion requirements.
The new joint venture school with InterCockpit is in addition to its planned affiliation with Flying Dragon, a new ab initio flying school which is planning to open in September with Hainan as a majority owner.

The Chinese government has been encouraging the opening of new schools to help meet a demand for at least 2,000 new pilots annually, spurring the involvement of CASC in the Lufthansa project.
The new school will use InterCockpit's air transport pilot license syllabus with some adjustment to meet Chinese regulations.

Source: Flight International