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4th July 2012: The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) regulates, approves and oversees flight training organisations.  The IAA's primary functions in this regard are the oversight of the safety, quality and standard of the training being delivered, the conduct of examinations and flight tests. The IAA also has the capacity to seek evidence that the organisation has sufficient resources in place to conduct training to the approved standards.

The Pilot Training College in Waterford (PTCW) is such a flight training organisation. PTCW also has a pilot training college in Melbourne, Florida to take advantage of the better weather for visual flight operations. Students undergoing training in Florida normally return to Ireland to complete the multi-engine/multi-crew and instrument rating to European standards. 

PTCW has a contract in place with the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) to deliver the flight training in Florida. On June 26^th the IAA were informed that FIT were ceasing all training activities in Florida for PTCW due to a commercial dispute concerning payments.

The IAA immediately sent a senior inspector to establish the training situation and he has now met the students. There are 180 students approximately in the Florida facility and 37 currently in Waterford at various stages of training. The students comprise both sponsored students from international airlines and those with individual commercial contracts with PTCW.  Students have paid PTCW for training and PTCW have a commercial relationship with FIT to provide flight / ground training etc. Contracts between self-sponsored or airline sponsored students and their training organisation are matters outside the remit of the IAA.

At a meeting today (Wednesday 4^th July 2012) with PTCW, and their financial / legal advisers the IAA, (in accordance with JAR, Joint Aviation Requirements Flight Crew Licensing) sought evidence and assurances that sufficient funding is available to continue operations in Waterford, given that the Florida operations have  ceased.

IAA Statement / Page 2

PTCW informed the IAA that they were investigating restructuring options but that this process would take 10 days to complete. The IAA has suspended the flight training approval for PTCW immediately. The IAA will re-engage with any proposals emerging from this process but in the interim training in Waterford is suspended.

The IAA will try to ensure that all training conducted to date in Waterford and Florida will be credited to the individuals' training records and our staff are now working on this.

"The students at the centre of this and their families are a primary concern for us," said Kevin Humphreys, Director of Safety Regulation, IAA. "As soon as we became aware that there was an issue, we moved straight away to assess what solutions we could find that would allow the students to bank the training credits they have already achieved in Florida, and to allow them to finish their training.  We are still working on both of these issues but it looks like students may well now be facing a loss which PTCW informed us today that they will endeavour to mitigate as part of the restructuring process. "

The IAA hopes that a satisfactory outcome can be achieved to enable students to complete their training and we will continue to assist in every way possible including directing students to alternative providers.

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For further information contact + 353 (0)1 603 1111