Sanya Aviation & Tourism College, located off the far southern tip of China on Hainan Island in the South China Sea/Bay of Tonkin area, has, in just one year, built a stunning 325,000 sq. ft. of classrooms, labs and administrative space on part of its 2500-acre campus. Sanya's primary investor is the HNA Group which in turn owns Hainan Airlines, likely to become China's largest airline, as well as nearly 20 of China's finest luxury hotel resorts. The school's initial year (2005) commenced with 600 students in specialty areas including civil aviation, avionics, and hospitality and sports management. As campus development is completed, enrollment is expected to increase to nearly 8,000 in just a few years.

Sanya/HNA has invested nearly $50 million in B737 full-motion flight simulators, aimed at projections that China will become the second largest civil aviation market in the world, generating the need for 240,000 more cabin crews in less than 20 years. Graduates will feed directly into Hainan Airlines, currently with 7 subsidiary airlines and managing 11 airports in China and the rapidly-expanding tourism enterprises.

Wentworth is 1 of only 8 schools in the U.S., and the only in the northeast region, with an Airway Facilities Collegiate Training Initiative Program with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This gives our students co-op job opportunities at both Logan International and Manchester Airports. Hainan plans to commence freight and cargo operations at Logan this year and 13.5 hour non-stop Beijing-Boston service in 2007. It was Wentworth's recent FAA involvement that prompted the discussion of a possible alliance with HNA, culminating in the signing of a MOU with Sanya in Hainan's capital city of Haikou, which received much media interest.