Cadet Pilot Protection Debate Heads to Parliament
The debate over the financial oversight of UK Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) has now made it to Westminster, with Tim Loughton, Member of Parliament for East Worthing & Shoreham, calling on the Department for Transport (DfT) to introduce steps to prevent cadet pilots losing their training investment when an ATO folds. In a presentation made at Westminster Hall on 12 September, Tim Loughton MP gave an impassioned plea for...
ATO regulatory oversight debate hots up
The flight training industry is continuing to seek financial oversight of UK Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) in the aftermath of the collapse of two majors UK schools, FTA-Global and Tayside Aviation, which resulted in the loss of millions of pounds of students’ training funds. Following FTN’s announcement that the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) may be falling short in its regulatory oversight duties, a number of ATOs,...
To oversee or not to oversee?
Investigations by FTN have uncovered the possibility that the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) may be failing in a statutory duty to provide financial oversight of UK flying schools, potentially increasing the financial risk to students enrolling on flight training programmes. As has been recently reported in FTN, two major UK Approved Training Organisation (ATOs) have collapsed over the last couple of months and in both instances,...
FTA-Global collapses
UK flight training academy FTA-Global has entered administration, becoming the second UK Approved Training Organisation (ATO) to fold this year, following the demise of Tayside Aviation last month. FTA, based at Brighton City Airport, is an ATO specialising in commercial flight training programmes, both integrated and modular and was the only integrated academy providing all of its training in the UK. Due to its location on the UK’s...
FTA Global launches ‘Fair Fees’ pricing strategy
Flight training academy FTA Global, located at Brighton City Airport, is launching a new payment structure this year, allowing students to make more frequent and smaller payments as they progress their training. FTA says that the initiative is in reaction to a growing propensity for pilot training schools to adopt course fee payment plans requiring aspirant pilots to pay both a large deposit and material fees in advance of training...
