Standing in the lobby of United Eagle Airlines Co Ltd head office in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, Philippe Burtonboy appears happy and relaxed.

The 44-year-old Belgian is a celebrity in Chengdu, even though he has been here for less than 11 months, as he is the first foreign captain to pilot a plane in Southwest China.

"I steered an Airbus A321 of the United Eagle Airlines Co Ltd from Chengdu to Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province last June," Burtonboy said.

Burtonboy was one of four foreign captains hired by the United Eagle, one of the country's four private airlines, alongside Pano Pahygiannis, David Harrigan and David Stoner from the United States. The four, who previously worked for major US airlines, are experienced pilots.

"Philippe and I worked for 16 years with Independence Air," said 52-year-old Pahygiannis.

The introduction of overseas staff is aimed at mitigating the shortage of domestic captains, said Hu Wenbin, spokesman of the United Eagle.

The number of passenger planes in the country is expected to rise from around 800 in 2006 to 1,600 in 2011, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China.

The four captains work in planes flying from Beijing to Shenzhen and Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Pahygiannis said that he had turned down invitations from many foreign airline companies to sign a one-year contract with the United Eagle.

"I came to Chengdu because both China and my home country Greece have a long history, rich cultural heritage and fine food," said Pahygiannis, an American citizen born in Greece.

He was impressed with the fish head hotpot and amiable people in Chengdu. "Chengdu people are as nice as my fellow Greeks. And I hope I can open a Greek restaurant in Chengdu," he said.

Pahygiannis has learnt four Chinese characters each day since he came to China last February, and when he speaks, his English mixes with a few Chinese words. Whenever asked to comment on China's civil aviation sector, he can speak fluently in Chinese: "It has a rosy future."

He said that he likes the relaxed lifestyle in Chengdu, which is quite like that of Greece, and Chinese culture.

On Thanksgiving Day last year, he went to the street in Chengdu, custom-tailoring two cheong-sams for his wife and daughter. "I sent them immediately after the cheong-sams were made so that my wife and daughter could receive them before Christmas."

When the four captains came to Chengdu last year, it was the first time that they had visited the Chinese mainland. Before their arrival on the mainland, they knew little about it.

David Harrigan, whose accumulated flight time is 18,000 hours, thought that the mainland must look the same as Taiwan. "I didn't expect it to be such a huge territory with splendid culture," he said.

Harrigan is impressed with collectivism in the United Eagles Airlines Co Ltd and the hospitality its air hostesses show to both pilots and customers. Its president and leading officials meet pilots and discuss work with them frequently.

"It is what many foreign airline companies lack. So I would rather work in China," said Harrigan.

Burtonboy, who considers life in Sichuan very cozy, has brought his daughter to Chengdu.

Younger than the other three captains working in the United Eagles, David Stoner has an accumulated flight time of 13,000 hours.

A man of few words, Stoner likes traveling and is talkative when he mentions famous visitors' destinations in Southwest China such as Lijiang, Mount Emei, Leshan Giant Buddha, Jiuzhaigou and Mount Qingcheng. "My next destination is the Shangri-la," he said.

Stoner said the staff of China's airline companies is very professional and their English is excellent. As there is no problem with communication, he feels as if he were flying in the United States, he said.

Sources in the United Eagles Airlines Co Ltd said that the annual wage of a foreign captain is around 800,000 yuan (US$102,564), while the average Chinese captain earns about 600,000 yuan (US$76,923).

The four captains came to the United Eagles Airlines Co Ltd as part of a package agreement of technical aid it signed with Top Flight, a management company in the United States.

The United Eagles, which formally started operation in July 2005, set a track record in the first 10 months of last year as nearly 90 per cent of its flights to Southwest China were on schedule, ranking first among all the 31 airline companies with flights starting in Chengdu.