Baltic Aviation Academy

[carreidas]

You mean he was a former Avion express cadet from the 2018-ish period, got finally invited to pass TR this year and got screwed right in the middle of the TR training with just no explanation at all from the company ? I would understand that an external airline (out of Avia Solution Group) revoks partnerships, but EVEN sister companies too? Or is it another reason why your friend didn't get his chance ? What about the others? I thought some Avion express cadets already joined the airline and were currently happily flying for them.

Good luck to the last Avion express cadets still in the pool if there are some...

At this stage I really wonder why is BAA still standing up...Maybe Smartlynx is the last real cadet program worth mentionning the name "cadet program"...and yet, I know a lot of former Avion Epress joined eventually this company instead. They just passed the selection at their ATO with success. So no need for the long, exhausting and pricey integrated ATPL program at BAA prior to join Smartlynx.

BAA had everything into their hands during those golden years (2017-2019) with Wizz, Avion express, Smartlynx, Turkish, Lot...At the end, what remains from these partnerships? Nothing. Because they were so dodgy, they lost both students and airlines confidence. They had everything to compete with the CAE/FTE/L3 ATO stars in terms of job opportunities and partnerships.

This is just sad, this is such a waste. I almost feel sorry for them

[NOVAA]

Hi guys!
We are now in 2023... Can anyone gives a honest update on ab-initio training at BAA? How is situation with flying in Spain and Lithuania?
Really appreciate your response as making a decision to enroll into they program or not...

[lleidapilot]

Originally Posted by NOVAA

Hi guys!
We are now in 2023... Can anyone gives a honest update on ab-initio training at BAA? How is situation with flying in Spain and Lithuania?
Really appreciate your response as making a decision to enroll into they program or not...

hey mate I graduate end of december and I adivse against it. Groundschool was okay for me and to befair its high quality but the flight training is a disaster. Although one of the main ground school instructors who taught gnav and almost half of the subjects has left the school for a job in an airline so idk if it will be of the same quality now .
If you are in contact with the managers just ask them what their fleet it? in their website theysay 8 cessnas and 2 mep. in reailty 3 cessna and 0 mep. ask them why are they false advertising. ask them what % of the fleet they fly. Ask them about maintenance, each plane has to go to maintenance after 50h in service, ask them where do these planes go and how long it takes to get them back. What happens if a plane breaks down at base, how long does it take to get it fixed? Why do they not have maintenance at in Lleida? Ask about the weather in Lleida, summer heat and how does this affect flying, what about the winter fog and cancellations because of that. About cadet programs ask about the success of LOT cadets. Did these cadets get a job as they were advertising? How does BAA help their graduates in finding a job? Ask them also about your rights, in your contract you have none, ask them what happens if there is a delay due to BAA's fault?
They have modified the contract so that nothing is BAA's fault. "Oh we are not responsible for delay if its weather" oh but you chose a base where the temperature goes above 40c in the summer and prone to strong stroms (period lasts about 3 weeks) and where it gets so foggy in the winter that you cannot see 6 meters in front of you and this fog lasts the entire day (period lasts 2-3 months), and both of these phenoma ofc cancel all the flights. "We are not responsible for delay for maintenance" yes but you donyt have maintainence at base and you have to ferry the aircraft to other airports for maintaincance and as well you pay for cheap and poor quality maintainance, so when theaircraft does come back it breaks down again after 2-3 days. " We are not responsible if instructor not availaible" you treated all the insrtuctors like shit with bad salary and rostering and when the airlines opened their doors they all left. This is the contract part. you have no way to beat this. nothing is their fault in case of delay and everything is your fault. If you bring this problem up, they will 'forget' to schedule you and not answer your calls emails texts etc.
The multi crewcoordination course is arranged in barcelona. The simulator and the facility is amazing but this is meant for type rating candidates NOT ab initio students. As an ab initio student , even though you have already paid for this, you will be on the bottom of the priority list and ALL the simulator schedules will be filled by type rating candidates or recurrent trainees. They will give you odd hours in short notice like at 8pm theyll tell you ok you have MCC course tomorrow in barcelona at 4am. you arrange your own transportation, accommodation in this period.
In an integrated course if you are uhappy with a school you cannot switch to another school, well theoretically but it is a hassle and youd have to start training from ground 0. It's better to go modular and not to pay up front.
If you really want to deal with BAA then you have to agree to NOT to pay upfront. I emphasise this. You are only a customer before giving the money, after paying you are a liability.
But aswell it doesnt make sense to do training with BAA, it is not fast nor is it cheap. A cadet program does not even land you at the airline they promised you. I suggest to look elsewhere.

[Warlock1]

Originally Posted by NOVAA

Hi guys!
We are now in 2023... Can anyone gives a honest update on ab-initio training at BAA? How is situation with flying in Spain and Lithuania?
Really appreciate your response as making a decision to enroll into they program or not...

Have you read the reviews here? And you are still considering this place??!? Man you deserve what’s coming up your way

[NOVAA]

Lledapilot & Warlock1
Thank you guys for response !
I am definitely looking for other ATO. I contacted BAA about one year ago- and sure I am read all reviews! I've been constantly contacted by Ad-Initio Project Manager - very actively by the end of the year /beginning of this year. I did ask a questions and quoted some of the reviews from this trend. Interested what I got in response :

1. More planes been add to Lleida base - Tecnams and brand new C172 in addition to already 8 aircrafts up there. There is a plenty of aircrafts available and student- to-aircraft ratio no more than 5 to 1 ...
2. Sure we do aircraft maintenance at base in Lleda ! There was an some small issues with aircraft maintenance before - but we fixed everything!
3. We have a plenty of highly qualified instructors and we keeped at the student-to-instructor ratio of no more than 6 to 1...
4. Weather delays are minimum.
5. All students on time for program completion except those who lazy and not concentrating on study and flying.
6. Accommodations in Lleda is very affordable and you'll have a plenty to choose from...

As I can see they are lying about everything... I hope some of the students(or pilots) who is in Lleda now can posted honest report on what is going on upthere - so new guys not getting burn...

[lleidapilot]

Originally Posted by NOVAA

Lledapilot & Warlock1
Thank you guys for response !
I am definitely looking for other ATO. I contacted BAA about one year ago- and sure I am read all reviews! I've been constantly contacted by Ad-Initio Project Manager - very actively by the end of the year /beginning of this year. I did ask a questions and quoted some of the reviews from this trend. Interested what I got in response :

1. More planes been add to Lleida base - Tecnams and brand new C172 in addition to already 8 aircrafts up there. There is a plenty of aircrafts available and student- to-aircraft ratio no more than 5 to 1 ...
2. Sure we do aircraft maintenance at base in Lleda ! There was an some small issues with aircraft maintenance before - but we fixed everything!
3. We have a plenty of highly qualified instructors and we keeped at the student-to-instructor ratio of no more than 6 to 1...
4. Weather delays are minimum.
5. All students on time for program completion except those who lazy and not concentrating on study and flying.
6. Accommodations in Lleda is very affordable and you'll have a plenty to choose from...

As I can see they are lying about everything... I hope some of the students(or pilots) who is in Lleda now can posted honest report on what is going on upthere - so new guys not getting burn...

Hi i am still in lleida, because actually I am from here. I live here and even though I graduated BAA 6 weeks ago , I am still very much in touch with what is happening at the flight school, because I meet my friends who are in the school daily, we live closeby (because they dont fly due to weather), please do not ignore my review, it still holds true . BAA are blatantly lying to you.

1. This is an outright lie. They are infact removing planes instead of adding them (selling tecnam p2002). They might have 8 planes 10 planes , but it does not matter, because only 3-4 flies and the rest is on the ground . And still, they do not have a single multi engine aircraft. Ask the management where is their multiengine aircraft, why are they advertising 2 if they have 0?
2. Then why is their own multiengine aircraft still on the ground waiting to be fixed?
3. I love that they quote student instructor ratio, ask them numbers, how many instructors they have and how many students? Turns out they dont have a lot of students nor instructors , which is why they are quoting a ratio and not a number. And also ask them how many instructors they had in 2021 or beginning of 2022? why did they leave ?
4. nop.lies. ask them about statistics from previous years
5. HAHAHA , ask them again about previous students, even famous ones from instagram- luke flood how long was his delay? pilotjonathan how long was his delay? actually you dont need to ask this because they posted their school timeline on instragram and publically so you can see when they started groundschool and when they finished. ask them why is everyone complaining about delay, is everyone lazy? BAA is dilligent XD ?
6. Its a small town with a university, good luck with acommodation, because university students take most of it. It is also quite unsafe. trust me I am from here.

If you really want to see the crux of the situation, ask them to send you a contract so you can read it. It has one million things about delays and how it is not BAA’s fault, they dont want to take any responsibility.

[NOVAA]

Wow...
Thank you Bro!
Definitely will stay away from that place... I expected that situation up there complicated but its totally disaster ...
How many students and instructors in Lleda now?

[Aspiringpilot123]

Guys, I'm also planning to join BAA in the Spain. I'm from India basically. Guys, should I join BAA for ATPL program costing 70k? Looks like their network is good, and also recommend good students to their partnering airlines. Comment on it please and also provide better alternative academies if any.

[lleidapilot]

Originally Posted by Aspiringpilot123

Guys, I'm also planning to join BAA in the Spain. I'm from India basically. Guys, should I join BAA for ATPL program costing 70k? Looks like their network is good, and also recommend good students to their partnering airlines. Comment on it please and also provide better alternative academies if any.

first of all no visa support, student does everything alone (there is an indian in the academy and there were moroccans, libyans, russians etc all same story) , people here in lleida base in spain are very very racist to indians ( it has got to do with the fact that there are many pakistanis and they have a bad reputation and as you look alike you get caught in the crossfire, constant police harassment, people do NOT like you at all, sometimes you will be denied entry from places).
BAA do not recommend anyone to any airlines, in fact even their own cadets from the LOT program did not get any job. If they do not even recommend EU citizens how do you think they can recommend non EU citizens? BAA do not have any network whatsoever, they are a company owned by avia soultions and their only ties are with other companies owned by avia. Turkish airlines stopped their partnership with BAA, LOT did not take on any of their cadets even to the interview, Wizz air cancelled their contract and instead trains their own cadets at other schools and now Vueling is ghosting BAA and not replying to any of their queries regarding their *partnership* , not a single person has been invited to even an interview through BAA, would you trust a company with a track record like this? Do not in any circumstances join BAA because of their airlines connections, cos the truth is that they have none. Any of their students that they post on instagram about getting a job with airline xyz is because of the students own hard work, BAA did NOTHING to help them
you made a comment without even reading any of the reviews which were published as latest as december november last year....

[lleidapilot]

regarding other academies im sorry but you have to do your own research. I've heard that AFTA is good, Bartolini in poland. But one thing is for sure is that companies generally don't tend to hire non eu citizens, so dont fall into the fallacy of getting a job with a european airline after. study in india and join an indian company

[gigachad]

a school not worth going to . Reports from alumnis who have done simulator preparation at a 3rd party company for a well known irish company's interview have stated that the training captains were not happy with their skills, and even made the assumption that they are BAA graduates as their skills, or more like the lack of it , led the captains to believe this, despite no previous knowledge of the trainees background and where they graduated from. Many of these trainers bet their pensions on BAA graduates NOT PASSING the assessment for this irish company.
Reports from one of BAAs previous airline partner companies, a well known low cost eastern european airline, was unimpressed with the level of the cadets BAA were releasing for the airline, many of them failed the company simulator check, which eventually led to the termination of the contract.
Take these events into careful consideration

[lleidapilot]

A video promo of BAAtraining https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYM22MEP/ a slightly more honest one

[Warlock1]

Originally Posted by lleidapilot

A video promo of BAAtraining https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYM22MEP/ a slightly more honest one

there was also a Facebook page, full of hilarious memes about BAA but can’t find it now! 😊

[lleidapilot]

Originally Posted by Warlock1

there was also a Facebook page, full of hilarious memes about BAA but can’t find it now! 😊

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067742255770 might be this you're referring to

[Warlock1]

Originally Posted by lleidapilot

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067742255770 might be this you're referring to

🤣🤣🤣

[gigachad]

went to their booth in pilotexpo berlin 24-25.2.23. red haired marketing lady super agressive from the get go.
asked about vueling program. "WHeN Do YUo WaNT To stArt?! dO yOu waNT TO STarT noW?!!" no questions really answered. asked them the fact that vueling hasnt taken back any of their laid off pilots yet, nor have they opened open positions for pilots in their careers page nor do they have any orders for new ac etc. no comment on that. '"We HaVE program wiTH VueLiNG"
talked with their stooge student they brought. how many planes do you have. We fly 5 he said. Well your website says 11. No comment on that. Asked this to the marketing lady. Yes we have 11 planes 8 sep cessnas and 2 mep tecnams.
So then i asked why is their MEP in EAS barcelonas colours. No comment. Said that was confidential reason.
Then i asked why none of their LOT cadets or Avion cadets got hired or even called to the interview and to this the red haired womans face started to match her hair. She got very mad "YOU DONT UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAD COVID AND FOR 2 YEARS EVERYTHING WAS STOPPED BLAH BLAH BLAH" then i pointed out but LOT is hiring NTR people with minimum hours from flight school and Avion as well had a booth at pilot expo berlin trying to entice straight out of flight school people. She didnt want to talk to me after.
Another lie which she told was that BAA has an enormous amount of instructors from different airlines, but this is false. The instructors who are in the airlines work in the type rating dept not ab initio flight training.
I talked with FlyBy school as well, at their booth and they mentioned that a few of ex BAA flight instructors moved to FlyBy to teach instead as the treatement there was better. And BAA has been trying to lease their multi engine aircraft but FlyBy denied it - take this info as you wish i don't know why the FlyBy guy was talking about plane leasing, but maybe BAA doesn't have any of their own multi engine aircraft.

Anyways guys keep out of this school. It seems like they were very desperate and they were very aggressive from the beginning. Most of the stuff which came out of their mouths were lies and half truths.
​​​​​​
​​​​​​unfortunately they are good with marketing and brought pretty ladies to their booth so many people were interested. unfortunately sex sells in aviation as well :/

[flybyschool]

Originally Posted by gigachad

I talked with FlyBy school as well, at their booth and they mentioned that a few of ex BAA flight instructors moved to FlyBy to teach instead as the treatement there was better. And BAA has been trying to lease their multi engine aircraft but FlyBy denied it - take this info as you wish i don't know why the FlyBy guy was talking about plane leasing, but maybe BAA doesn't have any of their own multi engine aircraft.
:/

onky because you mention us, I would like to clarify your comments about FlyBy and BAA.

It is our policy to never speak poorly of anyone… specially other flight schools. This post will follow those guidelines.

Yes, we hired 2 instructors that previously worked at BAA. One was a FlyBy graduated pilot that started working with us but went to work for them… and wanted to come back almost immediately but he stayed there for some years, if I am not mistaken.
The second instructor joined us un August and we are very happy with his performance.
There is a maintenance manager that also came from BAA to work with us but due to personal problems had to resign. I heard he may have gone back to BAA but I am not 100% sure.
Although we give preference to our students for TKI and FI positions, we also incorporate Instructors from other schools to support our growth. 4 instructors just started working with us recently

Several years ago, BAA contacted us for dry-lease of twin engines. We only offered to complete the ME training for them but we never agreed on the cost of the service so they went on to find a different solution

BAA has approached FlyBy in several occasions with different projects but we never found a mutually beneficial solution so have never worked with them

we don’t have any knowledge about the rest of the allegations presented here

FlyBy

[lleidapilot]

no one gives a single eff which instructors go where, the most dangerous part of this academy is it’s ability to draw in students through fake airline partnerships ie. the recent vueling program, because ultimately this is what people look for at the end of their training. a guaranteed job offer despite problems with fleet training equipment staff

GUYS BAA TRAINING HAS A HISTORY OF DELIVERING UNSUCCESSFUL CADET PROGRAMS, IT ALL STARTED WITH SMALL PLANET CADET PROGRAM (NO ONE GOT A JOB WITH SMALL PLANET) THEN IT WENT TO AVION EXPRESS CADET PROGRAM WHICH IS OWNED BY THE SAME PARENT COMPANY AS BAA (NO ONE AGAIN GOT A JOB) AND NOW THE LATEST VICTIMS HAVE BEEN LOT POLISH AIRLINE CADETS WHO ALSO DID NOT GET A JOB. I HOPE ANYONE WITH 3 BRAINCELLS EVEN CONSIDERING THE FAKE VUELING PROGRAM CAN SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING AND THIS PATTERN OF CADETS NOT GETTING A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!! BAA TRAINING GOT THEIR MONEY CADETS DIDNT GET THE JOB!!!!!!!

[Warlock1]

I was actually at the Berlin Pilots Expo and just for the hell of it, I hang around at the boot next to them and listened to this tall blonde lady trying to convince some poor young kids. Literally after 3-4 minutes when I realized I am about to burst out laughing, I simply left 😆😆