The Waterford-based flight school at the centre of a financial row that has left trainee pilots stranded in Florida has admitted some students will have to pay extra fees to complete their training.
Some 80 students, 34 of them Irish, paid up to €86,000 to train with the Pilot Training College (PTC). They had been receiving training in the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), which had a contract with the Waterford school, but, due to a financial dispute, the Florida centre has stopped their training.
In a statement last night, PTC said it had secured training places for a number of students with an alternative training company, CAE Oxford Aviation Academy, and these students would not incur additional costs.
However, the records of a remaining 71 students were still being assessed and it would be the end of this week before PTC would be able to tell these students if they would be made an offer of training.
“While CAE Oxford Aviation Academy will offer a moderate discount to offset part of the amount already paid for the course, PTC recognises and deeply regrets that a number of students will incur additional costs in having their training completed as a result of the ongoing dispute between FIT and PTC,” the statement said.
The company said it was doing everything it could to mitigate any possible losses.
In a separate statement last night FIT said the students’ training ended because “PTC quit paying its bills”.
It said it now estimated it was owed $1.4 million for services already rendered to PTC. The institute was extending its offer of accommodation to students to August 1st the statement said.
One of the 34 Irish trainees, Conor Deeney (18), from Derry, said yesterday that the pilots were starting to “pack their bags” to leave Florida and that he himself was leaving “for good” tomorrow.
He said the students could not hang around indefinitely until their visas had expired because there had been a “breakdown” in the system.
