Online-only aviation school to open in NH

State legislators have approved a new online aviation school that bears an old New Hampshire name.

The state Department of Education announced Friday that the online-only New England Aeronautical Institute has been approved to offer a bachelor’s degree in aviation.

The private school will start offering classes in October. The chair of the board of directors is George Antoniadis, who founded PlaneSense of Portsmouth, a major company in the aircraft fractional ownership industry, roughly the airplane equivalent of time-shares for condos.

“The Bachelor of Science in Aviation at NEAI is designed to prepare and differentiate individuals for entry-level careers in aviation. … The program is also ideal for current aviation professionals who want to expand their roles but lack academic credentials,”Antoniadis said in a prepared statement.

An aviation school called New England Aeronautical Institute was founded in Nashua in 1965, alongside that city’s municipal airport. It’s unclear if there is any connection to the new online school.

Over the years the Aeronautical Institute morphed into Daniel Webster College, which shut in 2016 due to financial problems. The college was purchased by a Chinese businessman but the Nashua campus has remained largely empty, although SHNU purchased the school’s flight center, tower building and hangar at the airport.

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