IASCO flight school student Burt Bai prepares a plane for storage after a training flight on Thursday.
REDDING, California - The Chinese company that purchased IASCO in Redding in March is working to rebuild the flight school.
On Tuesday, the Redding City Council approved a five-year lease agreement with IASCO for hangar/office space at Redding Municipal Airport.
IASCO plans to use the space, formerly occupied by Redding Aerotronics, for aircraft maintenance. The flight school had been doing its maintenance at Redding Jet Center before it signed the lease for the 3,200-square-foot hangar, Redding Support Services Director Rod Dinger said. The lease includes 9,100 square feet of apron.
It signals IASCO’s commitment to stay in Redding following speculation about the future of the school’s operations here after news that the company was for sale.
“We are pleased they are dedicated to stay here and rebuild the operation,” Dinger said. “... We were concerned over the reduction in activity.”
New CEO Luke Zhang has told Dinger that IASCO plans to add 170 students by August and is in the process of hiring more instructors and bringing on more aircraft.
News surfaced about a year ago that the local ownership group that purchased IASCO in 2012 was negotiating to sell the school. It was believed that a Chinese company was looking to buy IASCO.
The local ownership group included former State Sen. Maurice Johannessen, former SECO Manufacturing President Paul Ogden and Redding Distributing Co. President Dave Jensen. They paid $3 million for the 53-year-old firm that has operated in Redding since 2009.
Now IASCO is a subsidiary of Jiutian International Flight Academy (JTFA), based in Qingdao, a large port city in China’s eastern province of Shandong.
Zhang said JTFA was established 10 years ago and was looking to grow its operations overseas when it discovered IASCO was on the market. JTFA’s president visited Redding in October 2014 and started negotiating a deal.
“We are renting a new hangar because we are going to have more business here. We need a larger space to operate,” Zhang said.
IASCO’s enrollment has plunged from more than 150 students in 2011 to fewer than 30 today. Four years ago, the school had 55 staff members and now has about 30, Zhang said.
Zhang does not know why IASCO’s business fell off so much, only that the new owners are working hard to market the school again and build it back up. IASCO will continue to lease space in the Lockheed Drive building owned by Redding Distributing.
Ogden, one of the former owners, said the school was having problems before his group sold.
“We just had the wrong management in there. That is about all I can say,” Ogden said.
Ogden is happy to hear the new owners are staying in Redding and working to rebuild the program, which means more jobs.
Jensen of Redding Distributing didn’t necessarily agree with Ogden regarding poor management.
“I don’t know if we spent as much time and oversight that we probably should have done,” Jensen said. “We weren’t perfect in what we did but I think we left the business in good standing.”
In April 2014, IASCO and Central Washington University signed a five-year contract for IASCO to provide flight training services to the university’s aviation program. But the deal was in limbo while IASCO was in the process of being sold.
Zhang said IASCO and Central Washington University worked things out.
Sundaram Nataraja, chair of Central Washington’s aviation department, said IASCO provides the university with a fleet of 14 planes, 16 flight instructors and three mechanics to train students at Bowers Field in Ellensburg, Washington. There are 120 students enrolled in the program.
IASCO’s instructors are knowledgeable about Federal Aviation Administration rules and safety procedures, Nataraja said.
“Although we have had some difficulties with regard to availability of required number of aircraft and instructors to meet the needs of our students last year, as a school, we are happy with the current level of IASCO services,” Nataraja said in an email.
Meanwhile, in Redding, IASCO will pay $1,700 a month for its space at the airport and the rent is subject to a 3 percent annual escalation until it reaches $1,913 a month in the final year. The lease expires Dec. 1, 2020.
For Dinger, keeping IASCO in Redding is more than just having a flight school.
“It’s not just the economic impact at the airport,” Dinger said. “It is the impact on the community because of all the ancillary activity, the (students’) living expenses, the transportation, the goods they buy.”
Under the former owners, IASCO had contracts with four Chinese airlines. Going forward, the school will rely on its parent company, JTFA, to set up contracts with airlines, Zhang said.
Story and photo gallery: http://www.redding.com
Certified Flight Instructor Kellen Meyer (left) with IASCO flight school student Burt Bai talk after a training flight Thursday at Redding Municipal Airport.
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