American School of Aviation in trouble?

[Finn47]

According to this short article, some 100 students at ASA are about to be evicted today, and they probably paid some 46000 dollars in advance for courses they seem to be unlikely to finish:

TIMESNOW.tv - Latest Breaking News, Big News Stories, News Videos - (http://www.timesnow.tv/Newsdtls.aspx?NewsID=10500)

Careful with advance payments, I say. Hope it turns out OK, but it does not look very good.

[Founder]

This is not the only flight schools closing down... Most academies in Sweden who are training pilots will stop after new year 2009 including the government operated flight academy TFHS.

If the oil price stabilizes after these schools are shut down there is going to be a huge pilot shortage. Already today, most pilots who graduate in sweden get jobs within 6-12 months...

[rons22]

Founder, are you saying that if i aimed to finish my training by end of 2009-2010, I would be guaranteed a job? :) sounds great!
How about emissions problem and government taxation as this is related to oil prices too? :ugh:

[geordiejet]

I don't think there will be a shortage of schools and in turn a shortage of pilots.

I think the hopeed for "Ryanair effect" will come into place with flight training particularly with oil at $140 and above.

Some of the smaller schools, or those with less cash reserves will go out of business.

This means that there could potentially be just a few large schools training pilots. I'm thinking the integrated schools - who charge a fortune, but who have quite a low cost base (i.e. farming the training out abroad).

They also have fantastic marketing departments and have respected names in the business.

Meaning prices will go up.

A bit like FR - hoping others will go bust so it can grow, and raise yields. The same could be applied to flying schools.

[Gideon5]

Founder, where did you get the info on TFHS closing down? And in which timeline exactly, for them? I've kept an eye on them but have not heard about such yet... Any links to some news clips on the subject, for example?

TFHS's web site does not mention anything like that, and unlike private schools, they probably wouldn't want to postpone publishing such news if anything like that had been decided.

[Novaxeth]

Nothing has been decided about TFHS yet. They are still concidering the options (a new aviation school seperated from the university or continueing as it is now.)

Personally i think that TFHS will continue with their pilot training as before.

[cardtrickrob]

Hi guys,

I was very close to joining ASA as a student - so close in fact that I had received an M-1 Visa from the US Embassy on the day that I found out what trouble ASA is in!! I'd paid them $2500 as a training deposit and admin fee, which I'd used my creit card for - so luckily I can claim that money back from the insurance company of the credit card.

The school told me that they were moving from Castle in Atwater to McClellan in Sacremento. Two days after I was told this I called them to let them know the Visa had arrived and that I was in a position to book my flights - couldn't get through on the number I'd rung at the start of the week! The number had been disconnected. So I contacted the FAA at Sacremento. They said that they'd heard of ASA wanting to move, but because they didn't like the way they did business they declined to allow the move to continue. He said I'd be better off coming over to California and looking for them myself!! Couldn't risk that, so I didn't! I contacted the FBO at Atwater, and was told that they had just taken off (no pun intended) with all the money and hadn't been seen for weeks!

I found this a few days ago, sounds like things are really going from bad to worse:

SAJAforum: FOLLOW UP: High-Flying American School of Aviation Grounded (http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/07/follow-up.html)

for those that are interested, I had a back-up school (PEA in Florida). The guy I've been speaking to has been an absolute star. He's been great, efficient and helpful. Couldn't have asked for better after the near miss I had! All being well after my appointment at the US Embassy on Wednesday I'll be at PEA with a J-1 Visa fist week of September!

Cheers

Rob

[chrisbl]

This means that there could potentially be just a few large schools training pilots. I'm thinking the integrated schools - who charge a fortune, but who have quite a low cost base (i.e. farming the training out abroad).

They also have fantastic marketing departments and have respected names in the business.



Between 25% and 30% of what you give an integrated school goes on marketing to round up the next round of punters.