The North American Institute of Aviation was a private, FAA Part-141 flight school located in Conway, South Carolina, in the United States. Founded on July 7, 1972 in Hammonton, New Jersey, then later moved to South Carolina in 1978, NAIA specialized in flight and aircraft maintenance training. It has also had a campus in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The school had close connections to North European Aviation Resources of Vigra, Norway, and was for a period of time the ab-initio school of Scandinavian Airlines. The school subsequently commanded an excellent reputation in Northern Europe. NAIA boasted an international student population and graduates work for airlines world wide. The school concentrated its efforts on FAA Part-141 operations and their European JAR-FCL approved program in cooperation with NEAR, which maintained a representative at the school. NAIA operated out of the Conway-Horry County Airport where it was also the fixed-base operator .NAIA ceased training operations September 5, 2008. The school was up for sale, and had been approached by potential buyers. Most staff members had their employment terminated in order to revert the operations into a pure FBO service. European program students have not yet been refunded for their training tuition, although some of the American students have been refunded due to an insurance policy maintained by the school. European program students were transferred to Pelican Flight Training Center and Hillsboro Aviation.
