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Perth firm’s rescue mission for students affected by Tayside Aviation collapse

The boss of the Perth firm says he's spoken to more than 100 students this week.

ACS Aviation managing director Graeme Frater and technical director Craig McDonald. Image: ACS Aviation.
ACS Aviation managing director Graeme Frater and technical director Craig McDonald. Image: ACS Aviation.

A Perth flight school has stepped in to help students from Dundee rival Tayside Aviation after it collapsed into administration.

ACS Aviation, based at Perth Airport, saw 120 pilots graduate from the flight school last year – a 20% increase on the previous year.

It has also invested £2 million in new planes and staff in the past year.

This week, more than 25 students from Tayside Aviation have transferred to ACS Aviation.

Administrators were appointed to the Dundee business last week.

Joint administrators Blair Nimmo and Geoff Jacobs said Tayside Aviation, which has operated in Dundee for 55 years, has “ongoing working capital requirements that are unable to be funded”.

‘We had a queue at our door’

Graeme Frater, ACS Aviation managing director, said they were keen to help however possible.

He said: “We’ve been working round the clock to help people as much as we can.

“We had a queue outside our facility on Friday morning.

“So far we have spoken with over 100 affected flight training students, some that have lost a substantial amount of money after Tayside Aviation ceased trading.

“So far we have more than 25 students that have started training.”

ACS Aviation managing director Graeme Frater. Image: Gareth Jennings/DC Thomson

Students and their parents previously voiced concerns about joining the Perth flying school because it is not accredited by Middlesex University of the University of Central Lancashire, which runs their courses.

However, Mr Frater said he has begun discussions with both universities and hopes a solution can be found.

“We don’t currently hold an accreditation so we don’t offer a university degree programme,” he said.

“It’s not something that’s required to be a commercial pilot in the UK, but we’ve reached out to the universities to offer a solution.”

Supporting Tayside Aviation staff

The firm also hoped to help the 22 staff who lost their jobs when Tayside Aviation entered administration.

Mr Frater added: “We’re currently running a recruitment campaign to support those staff members that we made redundant so suddenly.

“We’ve recruited two new flying instructors already and that gives us capacity to offer more flights.

Students from Tayside Aviation which has gone into administration. Image: Kenny Smith/DC Thomson.

“We’ve got about 20 job applications to go through and we think we’ll have about six roles, so we’ll not be able to take everyone, but we’ll do what we can.”

He was also surprised that the Dundee firm did not reach out to find a potential solution before its collapse.

“We are surprised Tayside Aviation did not approach us sooner,” he said.

“There would surely have been an opportunity to transfer affected customers to our business in advance of entering administration.”

ACS Aviation boss defends price increase

Prices for courses at the Perth flight school have increased this month.

However Mr Frater insisted that had nothing to do with capitalising on its Dundee rival’s demise.

“We review our flight training prices in line with regulatory fee increases which happened at the start of April,” he said.

“We were due an increase in line with the fees that the Civil Aviation Authority charge.

“It’s not related to Tayside Aviation. The increase is in the region of 2 to 3%.”

Mr Frater in a flight simulator. Image: Gareth Jennings/DC Thomson.

Mr Frater also expressed an interest in purchasing some of the Tayside Aviation business.

However he said to date he has been frustrated at the speed of response from the administrators.

“I would’ve expected them to move a bit quicker,” he added.

“We contacted them on Thursday evening to see if we could do anything immediate to help. We’ve really just had generic replies by email.

“Hopefully things will pick up pace in the next few days.”

A spokesperson for administrators Interpath Advisory said they were unable to provide specific details of any enquiries about the sale of the business for commercial reasons.

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