IAA: Pilot college financing like a Ponzi scheme

The Irish Aviation Authority has likened the financing of the ill-fated Pilot Training College in Waterford to a Ponzi scheme, and said the director of corporate enforcement should investigate the company’s collapse.

The authority’s director of safety regulation, Kevin Humphreys, yesterday told the Oireachtas transport committee the “absence of cadet sponsorship by airlines” has meant private pilot training is “open to this kind of abuse, that is operating as a Ponzi scheme”, as huge injections of finance were regularly required to ensure quality training.

He lamented the lack of airline-sponsored cadetships, such as those previously offered by Aer Lingus and the air corps, describing it as “a lacuna”.