Sorry you are right it does work out cheaper than doing it in the UK. I hadn't looked carefully on their website & didn't really take into account the exchange rate, test fees & hire etc being included. They have modern aircraft for training i.e the DA42 & I haven't heard a good word about these in terms of reliability etc, can anyone shed any light please!?:confused:

Zulu...the planes are awesome,comparing to the PA28's I've flown in US these diamonds were like porsches,never being grounded due to technical reasons,the only negatives I can point out is the fact that there isn't many planes,although their fleet will double by the end of june I was told!It took me 3 months to do what I had to do but to me it was ok as there isn't any jobs anyway :}
Another negative (if you see it that way,debatable)regarding the school is that the town is reaaaaally boring mate,but it won't cause many distractions when you need it most,and you'll need to put a lot of study into it.:ok:

Hey guys,

I'm going to Egnatia Aviation on July to start my 0-fATPL training. Would be nice to know if somebody else is going there also. I've heard only good about the school, looking forward to go there.

Greece situation in general might be bad but at least everything is cheap :} I just wonder am I going to like living there, I've heard that the town is really small.

Zulu..it took me 3 months but they have more planes now and have been recruiting instructors for the past month!so you should get it done quicker,plus the summers in Greece actually include sunny days comparing to ours,so you'll be alright :)

I don't think so Anunaki, says on their site you need 150 hours to start CPL, 100 as PIC whereas UK FTO's want 70 hours PIC to start, maybe it's false economy after all....!?:confused:

I think you misunderstood what's on the site,I went there with less P1 time but I had 150 hours,I just had to pay for the hour building left.You can go but then they will charge you more than what it's quoted,reason it says you'll need the 100 PIC before you go(if you want THAT price)got it?this other place probably will tell you to go with less hours but along the course you'll need to get those hours done,so they'll sell it,or over-sell it,so be careful.From the 200tt you'll need the 100PIC and 150 to start right,so what's the point go through with the CPL,then when you're ready for the skills test you won't have the hours done?unless most of their students don't finish with minimums..or they work that way so the instructor can maximise his/her earnings(like in Florida,where the instructors and the school would ALWAYS find a way to make you fly more).Don't know mate,I can only share what I experienced..

Hi guys,

I posted earlier here about my plans going to Egnatia Aviation for starting my 0-fATPL training. Well, it seems that local politicians are still arguing about everything and can't get anything done. Now they're going to have a new election on June and it will be the turning point, are they going to stay in euro or fall out to economical chaos. I don't have any idea what such situation could do for flight training there etc.

What you guys think? Should I just keep waiting and see what will happen or should I just start looking other school. I've found Intercockpit in Germany, they look really good so maybe I have to change there if inevitable is going to happen :hmm:

From what I understood,they haven't got a choice,stay in the Eurozone and face the measures or leave and face similar measures to get back to competitiveness, Drachma would devalue at least 30% and the country would struggle to reinstate confidence from investors. After all, they have failed dramatically to meet their promises to their people and their financial commitments to EU/investors,so who trusts a Greek politician?

Mate,I feel sorry for them but I can see why they are in that mess and you'll see when you go there(NOT EGNATIA) I meant the country,their productivity levels are low(at least up north) e.g the HCAA only opens in the morning(state job he?!)and they are very hard to reach as they can't be bothered to pick up the phone.There are other fields in Greece under the government umbrella that people get paid alright to do nothing,the old case of unfair distribution of wealth,people thinking they are "the great nation bla bla.." and end up milking the system not caring where the money comes from.You'll go to the beach and their beautiful girls well dressed,guys in nice cars etc,when they earn so little...We all had a share of spending recklessly but they are up to another level.But in fairness to them,Their high and political class are the culprits,quite ironic that the land of Democracy had little say when, for example, the minister of defence was buying defective Helicopters and Submarines at half price and declaring them as new,keeping the cash to himself,or when the Olympics in 2004 turned out to be a financial fiasco,and goes on...
This is not an attack on the Greeks, I like the place and the people but they had to face reality now,the EU is not after them,we are all struggling and who wrote the austerity measures they are facing was the government,Sarko and Merkel just agreed to what they had to pay back.
If it's going to affect the school?off course...how?I can't tell you exactly,but assume they would fix prices according to their new/old currency, if it happens like it happened when Argentina went bust,expect the prices to soar over there and a lot of civil unrest.I believe Egnatia is owned by a group of foreign and greek investors,I think they will be OK tho,but take it with a pinch of salt as I am not a insider nor a economist :ok:

I was discussing this today. The general view was that if Greece go out of the Euro the drachma will devalue, making Greek products cheap to outsiders paid in euros and imported goods expensive for Greeks. That may give Greek FTOs a competitive advantage overall.

I was serching for clues about Egnatia and immediately jumped over the 2007 posts, as I believe that in five years the school had its chance to improve.
My first contact with them has been good enough. They responded within reasonable time and cleared my mind of doubts other schools were not able (or not willing) to clear. So far, from my research with other schools, Egnatia is the only one that includes EVERYTHING, except meals (though they can arrange that as well).
Concerning the country's recession, I believe if they come out of EU it would just be better and we'll save some money. I speak from Italy and we wish so much, oh yes we do, to go back to the old currency. However, I don't believe the school's service would suffer if the country bails out... training might become cheaper!
The only thing that concerns me is their English. I would prefer to learn in an English-speaking country, but it's also true that they have instructors of different countries... and the English on their emails was perfect :)
By the way, Tessaloniki is not Athens, it's a more "rural" part of Greece... so it may be better.:cool:

as a greek,i second what anunaki said about the greek situation.people are so greedy for everything,they spend their money on expensive clothes,cars etc which are far higher than their bugdet.Most of the times,they lend money from the banks for new houses and every other thing that will get them a step closer to the "higher" class.

the good thing is that since the crisis,we 've changed lifestyle and have continuously been decreasing our personal outcome.i have to clarify though that this is the way we raised up.we know that is not the right one,but this is it.This current economic situation is due to politicians promises and lies that "there is money" and many more which made us this way after 80s when greece joined the eurozone.Did i mention what a greek politician life consists of?
Houses,cars,no taxes,chicks,ships,planes and so on.And for these reasons,we will never ever stop blaming them.

Dogfactory,
as far as egnatia goes,there s nothing to worry about.the level of english,at least inside the school,is quite good.all lectures are of course in english and everyday conversations between instructors and students(even if they are both greeks) are in english as well at a very acceptable level.there is no radar in Kavala,so tower may be confusing some times.The only negative is HCAA who will reprint your licence after 3 months!!

Thank you Airbuslover for the assurance that english wont be a problem at Egnatia. Though, can I ask you why it takes so long to issue the licence? Is it only burocracy? Will they solve the problem, say, one year from now?

Hi,

I just called to Egnatia Aviation to ask about their situation. They said that they don't have any assets in Greece nor any transactions with the local banks. They, or he said me that if Greece will fall out from euro they will keep everything same as usually. The school will only use euros and the tuition will remain same.

Also he advertised how great everything is and they are expanding the school all the time. Well, you can't say if you haven't seen it yourself, I'm going there on July so I can give some feedback then ;)

Cheers Juzir, look forward to your feedback...

Juzir, I'm really looking forward to what you've got to say about Egnatia.
I've been bombarding them with emails to get a clear picture and I must say it sure looks good. I haven't confirmed a spot yet but I'm aiming on starting in November.

Opinion
 

Hi everyone,

I'd like to pass on my personal feedback regarding the services offered by Egnatia Aviation as I did my IR conversion from FAA to JAA in March 2012.

First of all, this is an excellent school: the planes are clean and well maintained, mainly DA-40s and DA-42s. Although their number is relatively small compared to other bigger European schools it didn't pose any problems of availability.

The staff is excellent and helpful. The overall administration in terms of paperwork and diligence was far above the level one can see in most schools.

The CFI and the HOT are amazingly available and friendly yet serious and professional when required. The instructors were also nice and professional on average. I had a limited time commitment to complete my conversion and was given at least two hours every day between sim and flights. The examiner was also fair and attentive to the fact that students aren't full time pilots per se (and as such are subject to errors) and, rather than partially punishing for a non sense issue, he would provide advice and guidance towards to the right action to do, which I felt would put anyone in confidence.

All in one, the prices are extremely competitive if one takes into account the full package inclusive of the accommodation, which I must say was very comfortable (free wifi). If you drive, rent a car as it is a must have. For the rest, the region isn't the best party place ever and is probably more enjoyable in summer.

I have no problem recommending the school to anyone and provide more details if requested. I will definitely go back there for my rating renewal.

I just hope Egnatia will not become the victim of its own success with too many students for a limited number of aircraft, which could lead to longer waiting time to fly.

Thank you very much for your good words Olivier. This is the reward we strive for everyday. Our ex-students being happy for the choice they made to train with us.

I want to assure you that what you fear won't happen. We have a fleet of 9 aircraft currently and we are expecting another 4 the next 2 months. We will do our best to continue delivering the high standards training you talked about always with the student in the focus.

Thank you very much again

Alexandros Chatzirafailidis
Course Coordinator
Egnatia Aviation

Course
 

Is somebody starting the ikaros course in September?

I have never trained at Egnatia but have visited them twice (2009, 2011) on the GA fly-ins held at LGKV every so often, and spoke to them regarding the FAA IR to JAA IR conversion (which as the URL shows I eventually did here in the UK, so I could use my own aircraft).

My impression was that of a well organised school which ran smoothly. I also got the impression they would not spend countless hours on the UK's anal obscession with NDB holds and NDB approaches :)

So based on what I know I would concur with Olivez' post above, and I recommend Egnatia for someone wanting to do an intensive away-from-home piece of training.

The area is truly lovely and is the best place I have ever been to for hanging out for X weeks. Yes, do hire a car...

On the minus side, their email comms have been poor to nonexistent so if this has improved that's a big plus, because few people will part with 4+ figures without getting stuff in writing. For example I never got a written confirmation that they would accept the 7 UK IR exams. The 14 UK ATPL exams were no problem but I wasn't doing that. The other minus was that they absolutely required the wearing of the full pilot uniform, which in the heat.... :)

Does anyone have any experience with icao-jaa distance learning conversion course? I need to do cpl/ir conversion. Can I do both in single skill test?

Any answer would be higly appreciated.

Try Dexe air at LOAN in Austria. They wont have maintenance issues with their location and flying in Austria is great. No idea about prices etc but as someone mentioned above, go with the modular route.

What's the name of this flight school in Austria? I cannot find anything on Google...

Just a thought on flight training in Greece.

Greece is at the heart of the Euro crisis, and even though things at the moment look calm, last summer the country was on fire with violent demonstrations and strikes. Nothing fundamentally has changed in this situation and there is still a real threat that Greece will be forced out of the eurozone, defaulding on its gigantic foreign debt if it refuses to make reforms and pay its financial obligations.
What will happen when it is kicked out of the Euro zone? The country will descent into chaos , not able to import fuell, with long lasting general strikes that will shut down airports, CAA and ATC. Flightschools will not be able to pay their €€€ financed aircraft, which will be confiscated by the leasing companies, banks will go bust with any funds paid into the accounts of the flightschool, not being recoverable. Riots, violence , possibly even civil war.
As most of the flightschools ask for big parts of the training to be paid up front you can get seriously burned financially, with your career in disarray.
The FTO's might look fine on the surface, but you will be investing in Greece as well. This brings with it incredible risks of loosing all your money.
I strongly suggest that you consider these risks when deciding where to start your flighttraining. There are many places in Europe where you will be able to get the same deal (all EASA approved training) without the potential hazards of a complete economical and social meltdown of the country where you are doing your training.

The key is never pay up front. NEVER!

Correction, never pay large amounts
Obviously 500-1500 deposit is normal in the industry.
But correct, do not be tempted by any additional discounts if you pay 50% or 100% upfront.

Egnatia are not answering e-mails at the moment, or for the last few weeks.

All potential students please read
 

I finished my 0-Hero training a couple months ago at Egnatia Aviation and I am still in contact with pilots who train there now. During my time there I met many students who complained about how there were no proper reviews of the school, so here it is:

Originally Egnatia was quite a small scale flight school which only did Modular training and for the most part had its issues but nothing major. However many things have changed over the course of the past year including its attitude towards its students/paying customers. Also they have raised their prices a lot on everything recently.

PPL: A lot of students are not flying as often as they should be and this was going on the entire time I was there due to bad scheduling. In turn where a lot of students over a year ago were finishing in 2-3 months max are now finishing in 5-6 (regardless of the students performance) due to the lack of organisation and general lack of regard for wasting your time and money.

Ground School: This I would say is one of the biggest draw backs as their ground school has no real structure or organisation again and has no one with real experience running or instructing in it, if your looking for a quality ground school you need to look elsewhere.

Hour Building: Their new prices are very high for the kinds of planes you are flying and once again due to the bad scheduling it can take much longer then it should, they also dont have many planes available due to all the new students they have. You wont be able to use your hours you paid for to go on long trips and actually enjoy all that money your spending. There are a lot of places in the states and Europe where you could get better rates and have the plane to yourself so you can finish up your hrs quickly.

CPL/IR/ME: This is actually pretty good and is probably the only part of your course I would recommend Egnatia for. The training is decent and its usually done within the predicted time frame.

Integrated Course: First of all as I said they don't have a real ground school and its seems like something that was thrown together last minute by amateurs that goes for the integrated course to.

Transportation: This was also a huge issue as they had a tiny bus made for eight people so a lot of times you would find no space left to get to school or back home when you needed to.

Location: The accommodation is decent the internet has some major issues was very slow and sometimes wouldn't work at all, just be warned Keramoti is a village in the middle of nowhere and has nothing to do except in the summer. Learn Greek because hardly anyone can speak English.

HCAA (Helenic Civil Aviation Authority): These guys are extremely slow at processing licenses and you could wait from minimum of 3 months up to 6 months for your license to be issued.

The school also gave priority to QAC (Qatar Aviation College) students over their own students which led to major delays for hour builders as they were not being scheduled in order to please students who were not even from Egnatia. Also just in case people were wondering: Egnatia does not have any affiliation with any airlines and fATPL from it makes no difference then if you were to get your license from another JAA school

The general attitude of the school to myself and everyone else I knew was that whenever you had serious issues such as not being scheduled to fly/ problems with your instructor/ ground school etc was one of disregard and a lack of respect. Instead of taking you seriously as a paying customer they would almost come across as if they were doing you a favor by even talking to you.
This goes especially for the Head of Training, Chief Flight Instructor and Chief Ground Instructor as well as the Board of Directors.

Conclusion: The world is flooded with aviation schools competing with each other for paying customer, if you are interested in becoming a pilot do your research talk to the students of the school even visit the place if possible so that you don't regret your choice after all you are paying a lot of money.
Best of Luck!

It couldn't be said better !
 

SuperAce, i know the school, i was there and everything you say is absolutely true and still remains the same.

I had and have many friends there and all are saying exactly the same think.

Your post includes everything good and bad points and nothing is missing !!

I don't think so.

Greece has never been "on fire". Only the business in bits of Athens. Outside, there is nothing happening.

Businesses who get paid in Euros will just carry on operating in Euros, should Greece revert to the Drachma.

That is how the "EU but not Euro" zone runs. Czech Rep for example. Croatia too, and that's not even in the EU.

Greece is never likely to do what the communist bloc did which was to actually criminalise the possession of foreign currency.

That may well be but you can hire a car for next to nothing, and then you have transport, which means you can pop down to the bars in Kavala and with your uniform loaded with gold braid you will be pulling the local birds ;) Oh must also have a proper poser watch, but in Greece you find fake 2" diameter watch shops on every corner :)

Not my experience, having been there a few times, and to Greece many times. English is spoken well - much more so than in e.g. Spain where a lot of people (outside the immediate tourism trade) are quite often plain rude.

Re internet - probably true because the other students are downloading movies ;) For €20 you can pick up a COSMOTE 3G data SIM which gives you about 2GB. Forget WIFI; it's a waste of time.

I am not suprised Egnatia are not so good for PPL training but one wouldn't go there for that. One would go there for a concentrated IR package, where you fly until you are done. Same as people go to Arizona, but you cannot do a JAA IR in Arizona :)

And if doing an IR or IR conversion, the HCAA is not involved. The examiner just signs the papers which are presented to the UK CAA. I have some notes here.

Hello
I'm intentioned to go to Egnatia Aviation for convert my FAA CPL with IR and ME.
I would like to know your opinion about this school.
Have you been there for convert your licence, if yes what can you tell to me about it?:) How many hours did the conversion take?

Thank you

Iwould go to Skies in Thessaloniki, at least you will finish on time!

Hi,

I've got a friend who's looking for a place where to convert his FAA licence, anyone has any update about how is the flying school doing, and what type of training they provide for a conversion ?

Mike_3, what do you mean by finishing on time ?

Greetings !

I currently live in Kavala and in January i will be starting modular ATPL with Egnatia. I have many friends in the aviation industry of Greece that consider Egnatia the Top school in Greece and one of the best in Europe hands down, especially Pilots that fly for Greek Airlines. I also happen to know personally people from inside the school, that also tell me only good words. I cant understand all the malignant comments posted herein. When a new business starts there are always problems till it catches a regular rhythm. As far as i am concerned Egnatia aviation is truly one of the best schools in Europe. Not to mention that it does have direct affiliation with flight schools in the middle east that pool pilots to major airlines. Many of the graduates of Egnatia are already F/O's in Greek and European airlines. Of course before you go on and decide, do your research and ALWAYS visit a school, and talk thoroughly and in depth with the CEO about everything you expect from them. If they do not meet your expectations you will know. Its common sense

Any good changes at this FTO?
 

Hello guys, I am considering starting my 0-ATPL training very soon and egnatia is one my choices high on the list. I have some very simple questions. This thread is 7 years old, with some really dissapointing posts in the earlies (back to 2006,2007 etc). Has anything changed since then? I know they have an integrated course now, Jet Orientation Course included, MCC, and their training has gone up to 15 months, seems like thery trying to make their course like the UK Big 3's ones.

Here you can see what I have read about them:
http://www.pprune.org/newreply.php?d...te=1&p=8785851
http://www.pprune.org/professional-p...t-college.html
Egnatia hour building to ATPL [Archive] - PPRuNe Forums

The most serious thing that I can not tolerate is the attitude. I've heard about bad behavior etc etc. In addition, on the downside I've heard about not responding on emails etc. But let's be honest, I've already sent an email to CTC 4 days ago and I have no responce neither.

So, all these bad comments is back at 2007 etc. Is there any recent ex-student to ensure they have changed? And what about mr Leberacus? Someone wrote about bad attitude and behaving to students and instructors, like children. Well this is so abstract characterization, and I would like to hear some examples.

Hey FlyingDoc7, I will visit the place anyway :cool:

The best thing to do is visit the school, speak with other students, come back home and make up your decision. That's what i did back in 2012 and finally it was my best option.

All the best !

I am currently a student at Egnatia and having been here for over 10 months I can honestly say it is a fantastic school. The Ground School has a proper schedule and four dedicated ground instructors allowing the school to run three ATPL Ground School groups at any one time. The instructors always go the extra mile and will always give extra help out of class to anybody that needs it. The schedule itself is planned to best fit the HCAA exam sitting schedule which is only released two months in advance however Egnatia does make necessary amendments such as having Saturday classes to give students the option to go to a sooner exam sitting. The actual flight departtment and dispatch is very smooth and efficient with students being scheduled pretty much everyday to fly and there is more than enough instructors to cope with the increasing amount of students the school is getting. The aircraft are very well maintained by the in-house Maintenance team. I am on the Integrated Package and overall I feel it is fantastic value for money compared with other FTO's as the school provides students with free Accommodation and Transportation which is a big bonus as well as internet and pretty much all the necessities you need apart from food. As for anyone interested in Egnatia I would advise to visit the school before making any decisions but overall I feel this is definitely the best flight school in Greece and one of the best in Southern Europe.

Any recent updates on Egnatia?

Does anyone have an opinion or any experience with the full time ATPL theory at egnatia?

I shave spoken to a lot of students in Egnatia and I am happy to say that they are all employed with an airliner and were extremely happy with their training . In fact, I have just applied for Egnatia and will be joining somewhere around September.

Egnatia provides very good training and ground school classes. The instructors are all very helpful. The package they offer is very attractive. But Egnatia has one big fault, which is very important. As soon as you have finished your training with them, they don't want anything to do with you. They give no professional advice with finding jobs, what the current situation is, what to do after training...they don't help you at all. That's because they are very business-oriented, and once you have finished training, it's bye bye from them. They care more about the money than the students. I have spoken to a few people who dropped out of Egnatia to go to other flight schools because the company was very persistent with making excuses to take more money from them. One of the people is still in a legal battle against the flight school about trying to get back some of his wasted money. The only way Egnatia's training package is of good value would be if you completed all the training first attempt with no delays. They perceive themselves as the best flight school in greece and one of the best in Europe, but in all honesty i don't think that's true.