Illustration of airline pilots – M.ASTAR / SIPA
“Human disaster” and “students in tears”, according to the collective of employees that was created… Some 200 students, who spent between 75,000 and 115,000 euros to enter a private airline pilot school based in Agen (Lot- et-Garonne), appeal to the Minister of Transport after the establishment of judicial liquidation, we learned Friday from students and employees.
The 217 students ofAirways College, which has three other sites (Cholet, Nîmes and Melun), have been uncertain since the school was put into liquidation on Thursday by the commercial court of Agen.
The “lifestyle” of a handful of members of the management involved?
According to the judgment, this company of 70 employees has a liability of 17 million euros for a turnover of 5 million HT. An expert has been appointed to shed light on the reasons for this bankruptcy that some students and employees attribute to the “lifestyle” of a handful of members of the management.
“The training costs on average 100,000 euros and the vast majority of students have taken out a loan to finance it”, told AFP a “collective of students” (representing 138 students out of 217). At the origin of an open letter to the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, he tries, with a “collective of employees”, to find solutions “not to condemn the students to personal bankruptcy”. From now on, “the pupils have only a tiny chance of being reimbursed for their tuition fees and will not be able to obtain a job as a pilot because they have not obtained the necessary qualifications”, nor to honor their loans, they argue.
“I know someone whose family will have to sell their house”
According to Antonin Oger, a 24-year-old student, the president of Airways College Jérôme Binachon informed employees and students on April 19 of his decision to place the school in the hands of the court. But ten days later, a judge finally pronounced the liquidation of the company, noting that its receivership was “manifestly impossible”.
“We were taken aback. Since then we have not heard from the president, deplores Antonin Oger. “But we are not here to attack the school. We want to find solutions (…) I know someone whose family will have to sell their house to repay their loan ”. The group of employees (37 out of 70 employees) is looking in particular for “patrons” for loans of simulators and aircraft in order to complete training, even “on a voluntary basis”.
Within the collective, two members of the teaching team evoke “a change in lifestyle” of the management team from 2019: “company cars that have become Tesla”, “private jet trips” and “family vacations camouflaged as business trips”.
When contacted, the company did not respond to AFP’s requests.