California-based aviation services provider Threshold Aviation Group has announced a partnership with Chinese firm YXST Aviation Industry Development on a program to establish and operate airports, FBOs, repair stations, and pilot-training facilities in Northern China.

YXST was established to provide general aviation services in the region, and has the exclusive right to develop at least six airports there. The company currently has three aircraft under management, with orders for at least 10 more. Last year, the company conducted a government-required proving flight between the cities of Zhangjiakou and Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei Province, using a Cessna Caravan.

Threshold, which operates FBOs in Chino and at Auburn Municipal Airport, as well as a maintenance facility and charter business, will provide experience in developing FBOs, as well as fueling, repair, and flight operations.

“This is a huge opportunity for Threshold to expand its international business with nearly limitless potential,” said company president and owner Mark DiLullo. “The Chinese aviation market has the potential to eventually be the largest aviation market in the world, and we are in on the ground floor of that by providing critical services to help get it off the ground.”

The announcement follows the inaugural U.S.-China General Aviation conference, which Threshold hosted last March at its Chino facility. With one of the focuses of the Chinese Government’s 13th Five Year Plan being the expansion of general aviation and building several hundred new airports, deals such as this might become more common.

“This is a first opportunity for U.S.-based companies to meet the people in China who are responsible to a great extent [for fostering] the aviation business in China,” Dr. Yuanyang Gao—director of the General Aviation Research Center at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as deputy secretary general of the Chinese Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)—said at the conference. “And it represents an opportunity to U.S. companies to share their expertise in an area that is new to China: general aviation.”

While airspace restrictions and lack of GA infrastructure are holding back development in China, there are tremendous opportunities. “There is huge pent-up demand for GA in China,” said Bradley Harker, commercial officer for the Foreign Commercial Service Section of the U.S. Embassy in China, “but the question is how quickly. When China decides to put its mind to something, it can absolutely grow.”

While China occupies approximately the same land mass as the continental U.S., Harker noted that the country has only 2,500 GA aircraft, 300 GA airports, and 20 flight schools, compared with 200,000 GA aircraft, 20,000 airports and 600 Part 141 flight schools in the U.S. Other areas that will need to be developed are a reliable aviation fuel-distribution network and locally trained support personnel such as air traffic controlers, mechanics, administrators, and insurance experts. While such training could be outsourced to the U.S., some argue it would be more economical for China to develop its own programs over the long term.