Severe winds flipped and destroyed three tied-down aeroplanes at NZAA at Oamaru Airport in March this year and the academy lost another last year in May due to extreme weather.
However, the Waitaki District Council has now agreed to sell the airport’s council-owned hangar to NZAA.
Academy chief executive Jonathan Manuel said they had been in "lengthy discussions" with the Waitaki District Council for about two years and were excited to make progress.
"We’re very happy, finally after the loss of four planes ... it’s lost revenue that we can’t replace," he said.
NZAA is ranked one of New Zealand’s leading pilot-training schools, and international student numbers have risen from 92 in January last year to 172.
Mr Manuel said they planned to attract 200 students this year.
"That’s the number that we’ve given the council because each student comes here anywhere between 10 to 12 months for the training," he said.
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise released research in 2009 that showed each international pilot training student contributed approximately $540,000 in economic benefit to New Zealand.
The research, conducted by management consultancy firm Scarlatti for the Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand, was well regarded by the industry and highlighted the significant economic value of the international pilot training market for New Zealand.
The school has 25 planes and 10 planes have already been added to the fleet this year.
Mr Manuel said the flight training school had an additional six new aircraft coming, two of those expected by early next month.
He said while the council had approved the sale of the existing hangar and given the academy land to construct office blocks, the school was still waiting for approval for a second hangar.
Mr Manuel was frustrated by the length of the council approval process.
"Sometimes I think they don’t realise what we add to the economy here. I think that gets forgotten," he said.
Waitaki District Council director of strategy, performance and design Joanne O’Neill said the approval of the building of a second hangar at the Oamaru Airport was advancing.
"The second hanger is progressing to resource consent with lease reviews occurring to support this," she said.
Mr Manuel said if they received the resource consent they planned to build an "identical hangar" to the existing hangar by the end of November.
He said it was "too early to say" whether the burgeoning academy would get the green light on the new build but he remained optimistic.
The council adopted its Oamaru Airport master plan 21 months ago with a view to more commercial aviation returns.
In August the NZAA will have completed seven years since starting operations in Oamaru.
