Squawk 8888, the information that you are giving out is wrong about the schools at City Centre. First of all, ATI is the bigger school. They are Canada's only publicly traded flight school, they have two bases (City Centre and Kingston) and have a fleet of mostly brand new C-172s(7 at the moment) vs three new ones for the Island Air. They are more than twice the size (in all aspects) than Island Air. They have a lot of money. Their fleet is currently undergoing a modernization program meaning that all of the old ones will be replaced with brand spanking new aircraft...no more dinky C-150s. Brand new twins are supposed to be on their way with the addition of newer complex aircraft (talks of a new C-182 and a Saratoga). ATI instructors are top notch. They have to go an extensive interview process plus pass a training program and whole bunch of exams after they have been given the job offer! In addition, ATI is the approved flight school for Air Georgian (an Air Canada partner). The two Katanas that you see sitting on the ramp without props belong to the old Humber college program and NOT ATI. They had a few maintenance problems that shut them down at the Island. The deal for the parking is open to anyone doing business at the Island and is not exclusive to Island Air. Island Air is also more expensive than ATI when it comes to hourly fees...Mel likes to gouge his students (not to mention yell and belittle his students and instructors). There was a thread not too long ago at the AvCanada site about training there. You should check it out...lot of negative feedback from former and current students and instructors.
[This message has been edited by KingAir (edited 16 January 2001).]
[This message has been edited by KingAir (edited 17 January 2001).]