Yes - Alpha delivers
Hiya,
I am an employee (instructor) at this academy, writing on my own behalf, not under direction of the management. I have been at Alpha UAE for 2 plus years and I have witnessed an amazing transformation in the higher management and structure of the establishment. I am not able to say more because I do not want to potentially risk breaching confidentiality, but I can say all is positive here. We are buzzing nowadays in fact. Our management team is extremely strong.
Student numbers are high - courses over the last 4/5 months or so have been pretty much fully booked - the only empty bums-on-seats have been due to last-minute visa or finance issues.
I can state that all students are having their contracts honoured and ALL graduates ARE flying with Air Arabia.
Flying training is now being completed in Greece, and recent student returnees are very satisfied with the training that they received (certainly the ones I've spoken with).
As an instructor, having ATPL (and now MPL) exposure in the UK, Europe and Middle East, at several academies, I am convinced that Alpha offer a unique product that delivers. The only reason Air Arabia will not retain you after 1500 hours is if you mess up, or don't develop professionally. My graduate students that are flying there are more than happy with their lot.
Our ground school has the same instructors as when I joined - zero turnover of staff in over two years (one guy left, but only to take a higher level job with an airline). I challenge anyone to tell me of any other ATPL/MPL academy that has a zero staff turnover. In fact you'll find that ALL of the big players have high staff turnovers - the reasons, well that's not for me to say.
Here in Sharjah the GI office is happy and harmonious, we have great rapport with our students, and we love what we do - and we do it well.
I will say though, if you are going to go into commercial aviation as a pilot, you need to be serious about it - "fancying" being a pilot, and the attendant status / lifestyle does not cut it.
This is a degree-level course, you're going to have to work extremely hard, much harder workload than at a conventional uni.
But if you go for it; work hard, have fun along the way, and you'll also make friends for life. Oh, and being paid to fly is fantastic!
Hope this helps.