The decision to send their students to Malaga was indeed an odd one. Whist Malaga is a nice place to stay and has good weather, LEAX was already dramatically over capacity with two large flights schools and the flight club using the tiny airport in a small valley. It is surrounded by the highly restrictive airspace around Malaga airport and high terrain limiting options (navigation exercises following the coast at 1000ft to LEAM are de facto standard. Stunning views, yes, but not exactly a challenging navigation exercise). Oh, and it is uncontrolled and has Spanish as its language of communication. How many aircraft can you fit in a single sided pattern? You'll be unpleasantly surprised there I imagine.
There were plenty of other options to partner with, but I imagine a good price (along with a glitzy school building under a blue sky) was CAE's thought, not practicalities. A sad situation for all involved.
Alex Whittingham Note the scheme is only for UK students with UK licenses. They seem to have much less of an issue getting EASA licence holders. Though I am not sure it's totally CAE's failure. easyjet has taken students from other big integrated schools for years and years when the need arises.
And I don't see how you can blame the regulator totally for this. They can't fully nanny state the market. There is an element of caveat emptor as a lot of this information is accessible.