Virgin Australia is in secret talks with China to build a flight training school at Tamworth. 

The flight school would be able to train up to 500 pilots with reportedly more than 90 per cent of the students to be Chinese nationals.

The project was formally launched exclusively to Chinese media, with the school to be created and co-operated by China’s Hainan Airlines and Winbright Aviation.

China’s HNA Group, which owns Hainan Airlines, owns 19 per cent of Virgin Australia.

Veteran aviator Dick Smith tells Ben Fordham “it’s a disaster”.

“By the look of it Virgin’s pretty well Chinese controlled.

“It’s just the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever heard of Ben, we need a royal commission into this.”

Click PLAY below to listen to the full interview