RP what do u expect?! u are lying here! hiding the truth!

Attn Alpha:

Stratocruiser 377. In your recent post you refer to Teething Problems at Alpha. The Cambridge dictionary online definition of this plural noun is : "problems connected with a new product, or problems at the beginning of a process or activity": Note the word BEGINNING.

RP-C000. The Cambridge dictionary definition of Should be Shot is, "said when you think that someone's actions are extremely unreasonable". It has nothing to do with any physical act of violence.

Alpha was not banned from flying in Sharjah. It voluntarily closed the flightline
 

Our World Today
 

Hi Taras B, I had a look at your link to "our world today", and if I was in an Airline interview, and someone asked me to comment on that photo, I would sum it up in one word: "Alpha"

Sadly those students will have to start all over again and also have to wait until may!

Now tell me if that had happened to any one of u what would u think off it.

I spoke to one of the students and he is pissed. Very pissed.

and bluesky I LOVE ur thought on the picture!

GCAA's point of view
 

Total case of discrimination. Two cadets were removed from Alpha recently in their coreflying and sent back from Australia. One cadet has succeeded in exerting enough pressure on Alpha and will be sent back to Australia at no extra cost to him to start from the flight he had failed. The other cadet has been left high and dry.

aakhan.. so tomorrow when you go try and get a job for an airline and you dont make grade and the Head of training grounds you.. will you call that discrimination..

the student is being removed from core flying for his own safety, if the AAPA instructors see him not making the grade then for his own and flight safety in general the pilot is grounded.

If Alpha was a professionally run aviation academy then the cadets would have been handed the contract before paying the first installment. There is no sign of contract when cadets join. It appears mysteriously appears four months after joining and cadets are forced to sign under pressure.

Was all this reported?
 

Gents,

Was this ever reported to the authorities? I am referring to all the issues, but in particular the one about the contract? This SHOULD BE reported to the Consumer Protection Department of Sharjah Municipality, the Ministry of Economy and the Emirates Society for Consumer Protection. If you want results, you have to sit the exam!

Both the cadets failed and did not clear the core flying requirements no matter which stage and were recently sent back from Australia by AAPA. Discrimination stems from the fact that one cadet was able to exert enough pressure to be sent back to Australia and restart his training from the flight number he was removed. I would like to know will Alpha henceforth be giving this opportunity to all their cadets or their chosen few. Well if was a fact there was no sign of the contract when the cadets joined but it mysteriously appeared nearly five months after and the cadets were told to sign on the doted line if they wanted to remain in the prommgrame. The date mentioned was the date that each cadet had joined though it was handed four months after. Can Alpha explain if it is legal

PLEASE READ
 

To new cadets

Ensure, I repeat, ensure that you make it absolutely clear to AAG that you won’t pay till you see the contract & get a copy. Plus, ENSURE that the contract has clearly mentioned everything, ground school, how it will be conducted, minimum hours, minimum requirements, exit clause, what ifs, etc…. and the same for flying phase and the line training…

To current cadets

Like I posted earlier, the authorities should be notified… do not just stick to GCAA. GCAA is regulatory body for ‘aviation’. If there are issues other than aviation, like in this case people dropping out etc or contractual issues, then you go to the right ministry as I have pointed out in my earlier post.

Thanks Risk and Taras B. The word Air Arabia is not mentioned in the contract. The contract is one sided and goes in favour of Alpha where cadets have no rights and is between cadet and alpha. Thus no cadet is shown the contact at the time of joining. They tell you there is 99% success rate and make the training sound simple and lure you into the programme. I ask my prunne friends and well wishers of cadets does this contract hold any ground as though full fee of Dh440,000 payable by cadets is written but nothing is mentioned about air arabia. Remember MPL programme needs sponsor airline.

Lawyer
 

Guys,

Co's : anyone of you has an info for a lawyer (familiar with aviation industry) in the UAE, do you know how much does it cost? I'm getting closer to enroll as I've been waiting for a year and really really want to start the training but still scared because of the review rite now :confused: ..

Pro's : Is getting a lawyer really a better first step for a new cadet? What if AAA won't like me because of this and giving me hard times during the training? What's your best advise ..

Should I enroll now (ensure the contract+lawyer) with the risk of being rejected/unfavorable cadet for AAA or to wait longer (which I can't hardly bare) ..

Thanks!

AAG has a professional team working in Sharjah, they are not kids who will "not like you".. take your parents and your lawyer with you make a list of questions signup only if you feel 100% positive..

Air Arabia Graduation ceremony | Facebook

If you want to risk your hard earned money go ahead with Alpha. To say that it is run by a professional team would be a joke. They enforce an unseen contract on you four months after joining. When you are removed they will say you have no right because of the contract. You would be better of joining horizon flying school and doing your Cpl if you want to stay in uae.

Alpha Aviation Academy | Air Arabia


:ok::ok:

“Alpha AviationAcademy is a joint venture between Air Arabia and Alpha Aviation Group”

I don’t think it ever was. Although Air Arabia owns 51% of Alpha Shares, it was a contractual agreement (however no one has ever seen that contract) that Alpha would train MPL students for Air Arabia. There was, and still is no guarantee of a job at the end of training, even after giving away AED 440 000 and 14 months of your life to Alpha.


“if Air Arabia is not mentioned on, nor a signer to,AAG's MPL training contracts, that's a huge red flag”

About 2 years ago, Alpha put a full page ad in the Gulf Times for MPL training, and in the background was a photo of an Air Arabia A320. Alpha got into so much trouble for this. All subsequent ads had the same photo, but the Air Arabia sign on the fuselage, as well as the logo on the tail were ‘photo shopped’ and taken out.

14 months you say. Batch 1 - 2 yrs 10 mths approx. Batch 2 various - 2 students already over 3 years, some about 2 years - 2 yrs 6 mths and still about 1-2 mths left to completion. Time is money! The situation MAY improve for future batches but the track record suggests a total change of organisational mindset needed.

AED 440,000 you say plus line training costs about AED 150,000 (mostly deducted from 1st officer salary - if offered a job) and 5 year bond AED 100,000. Plus living costs during training.

Forgot to mention I understand there is a salary paid during 2nd officer contract period of 750 hours but quite low - maybe average of about AED 10,000 per month.

Thanks Greenkiwi for the information. It will help the new cadets before they part with their money to Alpha. However no contract is even mentioned when we joined. Only verbal promises were made like : Reasons for joining Alpha
a We have 99% success ratio
b You are guaranteed employment at the end of your training.
Then mysteriously an unseen contract appears which is enforced upon cadets and which empowers Alpha to remove cadets. No other associated costs like paying towards line training are told but you are made to assume that your DH 440,000 covers the 40 sectors.

I have been following this thread for sometime, and could hazard a guess that there is a very small percentage chance in gaining a job with alpha afterwards and then being stuck with a useless MPL licence. I think if you are in the UAE, then Horizon International flight academy at AL AIN would be a far better choice for your fixed wing training, at least at the end you will have a stand alone licence frozen ATPL, that will allow you to be employable in the gulf region. Unfortunatley in the Gulf and Asia pacific region, you have and have had many different Companies promising you the world, with strange sponsorships and contracts which are not worth the paper they are written on, the reason these companies are in the gulf and asia pacific region is because this is where the money is, and wealthy familys can afford to buy their son or daughter a career and these dubious companies are all to willing to sell a dream.
Being a pilot is hard work and a long road to maintain your comitment and discipline. If a company offers you a cadet sponsorship then this is what it means, you pay nothing... they pay you a cadet salary throughout your training, if you pass and become online first officer then for the next few years you will have a reduced salary to pay off the training bond. It seems that some Airlines are saying this word "sponsorship" and then asking the cadet for money to start training :ugh:
With the guys in the gulf have you tried to go to the U.S as the training is a alot cheaper and you will be able to walk away with a FAA atpl, south africa and even spain are all alot cheaper and will provide you with a worthwhile stand alone Licence that will get you into any country for your first job.
Here's a question, as I am not a fixed wing pilot, if you gain a MPL licence with ALpha get online at air arabia..... then air arabia as a company stops operating what will happen to you, with your shiny MPL licence..... 99% of companies will not accept this licence.

All the best

Fluffy5

Fluffy5 you are absolutely right. For the students sake I just hope for a couple of things...1. that Air Arabia will not stop operating, and 2. if they do stop operating, then the cadets will have enough hours and experience to convert to an ATPL where they can use their shiny GCAA Licenses with 99% of the other companies.

"We have 99% success ratio"
 

Aakhan, this may have been true when students were training in the UAE or even in Clark. Considering the standards they have there, I am guessing it was close to 99% with all the time it took, and the fact that even when the Instructors recommended that a student be chopped from the course, Management asked them to continue anyway.

I am probably willing to bet that there were a few students who were rejected in the interview process, but got through anyway for the sake of a cheque that cleared in the Alpha laundering account.

However now that training is being outsourced to Australia I am hoping things will change, and that the figure of 99% will drop, as it usually does in any respectable flying training academy.

How very true

I completely second what Stratocruiser377 has said. I have personally spoken with the HR personnel at Air Arabia recently and they have confirmed that they are indeed partnered with Alpha Aviation and would recruit MPL holders, subject to meeting their standards.

If anyone has doubts, feel free to approach Air Arabia to establish the verity of this.

Please stop posting content of misguiding nature...

To Share
 

Guys, as you are discussing the matter of Employment or Air Arabia Line Training...etc. & MPL

As you all Know, ANY Cadet Pilot Training Program puts the responsibility on the cadet to achieve & pass his training, I have friends in Cadet Pilot training programs in the region & somewhere out of the region (including Mexico), ALLLLLL of them say it, if they don't pass in their training phases, the Airline that is responsible for them SUES them, by Simply asking their Guarantor (who signed the papers for financial stuff) to pay for their "FAILED" Training fee, as an example, there is an airline here in UAE, that has a cadet pilot program & it costs the airline 540,000 AED...if you fail, you spend your life paying back (Some or All) depending on your stage...this is LEGAL, same thing applies everywhere...70 Cadets will find their way into Aviation & into ABY, lets wait & see.

Speaking of Air Arabia, if you remember...a month ago, we had our Graduation Party & of course, GCAA, Air Arabia & AAG were present (Including Parents)...and Of course, Each had a Speech, Air Arabia's Speech was simply...the Best, it was done by a Senior Captain & he said:

"In 2003, everybody went against our Idea of a Low Cost Carrier, they told us that the people here are used to BMWs, Mercedes, Audis & Porche...its impossible to succeed in here, but with time...WE PROVED THEM WRONG..., we belief in MPL & we are sure that it is the right way of training the new generations of Pilots...some people went against it, but, with time, We simply Proved them WRONG"

To Prove that...ABY has stopped accepting CPL holders & only a very very few were accepted into ABY & until this moment haven't had the chance to start their Type Rating...why, simply because MPL has Priority, when you go & speak about MPL with the Management/Training Dept. they show a lots of attention & enthusiasm about the MPL Program.

GCAA is doing its Job aswell, where just yesterday, a GCAA inspector was flying with one of my colleagues to inspect MPLers & give feedback to ICAO...I can tell you, we are doing a Hell of a Job :ok: he was really happy with the Cockpit atmosphere & the way the line training was going on...etc.

MORE CHANGES TO COME :ok:

The fact remains that two contract are signed by cadets. One is with Alpha where the cadets pay Dh440,000 in which Air Arabia is not mentioned. The second contract is with Air Arabia when they undergo line training. No where it is written that it is binding for Air Arabia to hire all MPL cadets. Why does Alpha and Air Arabia not come up with one contract written and signed that all MPL cadets will be hired. No verbal promises otherwise many cadets will be left behind in the name of not meeting the required standards. From the first few batches all may be hired because it helps with the publicity. No verbal promises Alpha.

Taras B I am no supporter of Alpha's business skills etc but to be fair we just don't how many MPLers will get recruited by Air Arabia. All of batch 1 yes. After that time will tell.

I think Alpha has just been really lucky in Clark where the airline business cycle in the Philippines enabled them to get most but not all cadets placed in jobs. The Clark cadets who got into Air Arabia were really lucky. The same is happening at the moment in SHJ where Air Arabia has a shortage of FOs. The problem is in a downturn caused by eg problems in Iran, acute competition from say Fly Dubai, fewer resignations, say partial fleet grounding. Then it will be MPL cadets sitting around waiting and hoping with nowhere else to go. Then the problems of a non sponsored ( I mean sponsored in the true and traditional sense) cadet training programme will be apparent. By the way guys it is a fact in life that there is often no guarantee of a job to anyone doing a training course at Uni but the issue highlighted here is that everyone is asked to invest massively in a qualification that realistically has 1 and only 1 employer. I would be surprised if Alpha could do the same trick again as they did with placing the Clark cadets in an airline in another country that was never the sponsor of the cadets.

If any of you guys feel that all cadets MUST be hired Air Arabia and the contracts to be made that way, let me tell you it ain't gonna happen! In fact it happens nowhere! Don't expect anyone/everyone to be hired into the airline....the good ones should be hired though! why should any airline have an obligation of hiring someone who is not upto the mark???? Not every MBA grad gets into McKinsey, not every graduate doctor gets into American Hospital, not every CPL holder gets an airline job and neither would all MPLs get into the partner airlines...that's how it works everywhere. Stop staying in fool's paradise guys! Get real and hit the books! Blue skies up!!
Cheers

You need to check the GCAA website and see eg CAAP 37 re MPL. There is also some stuff not written in the regs. I think this is the position with MPL. On qualification you get a MPL that is both type (A320 not A320 family) and airline (Air Arabia) specific. This is what the batch 1 guys have. Why - well I think the GCAA is just following the practice in other countries such as the UK and I think they seem to be following the UK CAA policy on endorsements to the licence. Just google Uk CAA lasors part K MPL and I think you will find a PDF on the CAA regs on MPL. You will see that as per the UK provisions the airline endorsement can be removed after line training. If you try to get another type rating endorsed before line training then bad luck you have to start the SIM training agian I think. After line training on the original type I think you can then get a new type endosed on the MPL. Also look at GCAA provisions for licence upgrades. MPL to ATPL requires 1,500 hours but can only count half time as PNF under GCAA regs so effectively say about 2,200 hours on flight deck to upgrade to ATPL.

Google ok but a MBA graduate, a medical graduate and a CPL holder can work for anyone worldwide so they have the chance to try and get the foot in somewhere, anywhere to get their CV going. See Green Kiwi's post - the GCAA MPL will be limited to Air Arabia until at least completion of line training and Air Arabia has no obligation to offer anyone that line training. I agree that expecting a guartantee of a job is not in the real world BUT this programme could have been set up differently so there was far more vetting of candidates and a mix of self paying, financing available and more deduction from salary when online so it was quasi sponsored in the true sense and this would have attracted a lot more candidates. Either that or offer a CPL or frozen ATPL and the best then go forward to A320 type rating with a high expectation of a job at Air Arabia. Those that don't still can use the qualification elsewhere. Fact is most people (parents) don't have AED 440,000 plus so the pool of potential cadets is very limited.

The AAG managers in Sharjah should inform future cadets that only the best will be hired with Air Arabia and then see how many will part with their hard earned money. Thus in order to lure cadets they are not even shown the contract. Tall verbal promises are made. Air Arabia will hire Mpls from Alpha des not mean all MPL cadets will be hired.

Atis777, agree completely. AA program could have been set up differently. A lot can be improved and it should be! I have expressed same views in my previous post. My point is, cadets at alpha have made a choice already and they had an option of doing a conventional CPL/IR before joining alpha. Were they all guaranteed a job at Arabia? If yes, I stand corrected. Apologies. If no, they cannot blame alpha for 'their' wrong choice..everyone knew MPL is a new program. Will take time before it starts running smoothly. If I were to do my flight training again, I would be wary of such a program. At least at this stage.

Thanks Google. Alpha gave no guarantee there would be a job but the programme does offer a good prospect (time will tell) because of the link with Air Arabia. Frankly noone in their right mind would have waited and waited and waited through all the delays if this was a CPL/IR programme.

Bad Planning
 

One of the biggest problems with Alpha’s planning for this program, is that there was no real planning done.

They set up a flight line in Sharjah, with no research into Sharjah Airport, and then found out the hard way about all the restrictions with airspace, traffic and ATC.

They set up a MCC department in Sharjah, but why did they go for a B737 Sim, when Air Arabia are using A320’s?

And finally they knew they had to do an Intermediate and Advanced phase for the sim, however no thought was put into where this would happen, and how much it would cost. And with the high turn over in management at the top, I am guessing that whatever was planned, was also quickly forgotten when Staff either walked out, or were kicked out the door.

In the end I am really surprised that despite all the planning (or lack thereof), Alpha actually gained GCAA approval to operate.

However I guess things are improving…Flight training is now being sent to Australia. The latest rumour is that the MCC Sim will eventually be replaced with an A320. And by now I am guessing that Alpha have got their act together, and the Cadets are not being sent all over the world to complete the Intermediate and Advanced phase???

it is NOT a 737sim this is a specific sim for MPL courses.

Press Releases


Configured as a generic twin-engine heavy jet aircraft, the Ascent® XJ Trainer™ integrates a suite of advanced avionics such as TCAS, EGPWS, FMS and weather radar to familiarize Alpha’s pilot students with the automated flight deck as well as the performance and speeds of today’s modern jet aircraft. Featuring a 180° x 35° projected display, the FSTD provides the highest level of visual fidelity via a Raster/xT Image Generator from RSI. A lesson plan editor enabling the instructors to prep-program scenarios and build a library of training sessions is also included; students’ performances can be measured and compared in similar conditions.

the 320 type rating training is done on a dedicated A320 Level D sim