Chinese pilots are going to use US planes to learn how to fly

U.S. airplane maker Piper Aircraft said Wednesday it will sell more than 150 trainer planes to China’s Sichuan Fan-Mei Aviation Technologies, which runs a pilot training programme in the mainland.

Piper Aircraft, which makes small general aviation aircraft and is based in Vero Beach, Florida, will sell 152 planes over seven years in a deal worth US$75 million. It includes the sale of 100 Archer TX single engine aircraft that are used to train new pilots.

For the current year, Piper said it planned to deliver 20 planes, with the first delivery starting in March to the Fan-Mei flight school in Sichuan province. The deal was announced at the Singapore Airshow .

Piper President and CEO, Simon Caldecott, told CNBC that Asia has become a key market for the company because there is a growing demand for new pilots in the region.

“One of the things I’ve been looking at, and constantly monitoring, is the global shortage of new pilots,” Caldecott said. He pointed to aircraft maker Boeing’s predictions that Asia Pacific will eventually lead the global demand for pilots.