All the latest news and updates from the school.
Érine has finished her course, with the CPL commercial pilot licence and the IR and ME ratings in hand. Eighteen months: that is the advertised length of the Airline Pilot programme, and that is exactly how long it took. Certificate presented at Cretan Eagle Aviation. Next come the airline selections. Well done Érine!
The second class to graduate from the dual Bachelor-Pilot programme, a year after the first. Gowns, caps, families in the front row. The moment is shared with family, and that is what gives it meaning. Graduates leave with two qualifications: the Bachelor Universitaire de Technologie awarded by CY Cergy Paris Université, and the CPL professional pilot licence with IR and ME ratings. Enough to enter the profession with a real safety net.
First solo for Salomé: the first flight alone at the controls, the one you never forget. Certificate in hand alongside her instructor, at Cretan Eagle Aviation. One milestone passed, and the rest of the programme ahead. Well done Salomé!
A house tradition: the students already on site are the ones who go to Heraklion airport to collect the new intake. Improvised name signs on phone screens, reunions in the arrivals hall, then everyone heads off to the welcome meal. Within a few hours the new arrivals are no longer strangers, and for an eighteen-month course far from home, that counts as much as anything else.
Our Cretan partner Cretan Eagle Aviation celebrated its 25th anniversary, and our students were there. An official day, with speeches, local officials and the regional press, during which ESA strengthened its partnership with CEA. Our students met the guests and posed in front of the DA42, the twin-engine aircraft in the fleet. Twenty-five years in business for a flight school is the kind of longevity our intakes benefit from directly.
Every morning the shuttle collects students from the residence and takes them to the airport. Five minutes, no more. But you have to be ready on time and in uniform, because the day ahead runs flights and classroom lessons back to back. A simple discipline, and already the discipline of the job.
The unmissable event of the year: the Salon des Formations et Métiers de l'Aérien, at Le Bourget. It is the biggest of them all, where the whole industry gathers: flight schools, airlines, maintenance, air traffic control. Aisles packed from morning to night, and an atmosphere that never dipped. Every year it shows just how alive the calling to aviation still is.
Our first outing of the year, at the Porte de la Villette student fair. By January, plans are firming up: the sixth-formers we meet are no longer just gathering information, they are comparing schools, working out budgets and, above all, asking whether the job is really for them. They are the best conversations of the year, and our students answer them straight.
Off to the Oise for the student fair at the Senlis lycée. A more intimate format than the big Paris shows: there is time to sit down, walk through the whole course and answer the real questions, the ones about selection, the medical examination and funding. Our students were there to talk about it, and nobody explains it better than they do.
First solo flights for the September intake: the first flight alone at the controls, with no instructor beside you. It is the most symbolic milestone in a pilot's training, the one everyone remembers. It comes less than three months after they arrived in Crete. Certificates in hand at our partner Cretan Eagle Aviation. Well done to them!
Our students were at the Porte de Versailles student fair, on the stand shared with CY Cergy Paris Université and the IUT de Cergy-Pontoise. A chance to answer questions from sixth-formers and their parents about the job, the entry requirements, the funding and how the course runs, and above all to tell their own story. That is often where a vocation is decided.
A Chinese university delegation was received in the BUT GEII laboratories to explore the shape of a possible partnership. The dual university-and-flying course remains a rare format in aviation training, and it is now drawing the attention of major foreign universities. A welcome recognition of the work done with our university partners.
The first flight comes in the very first week, and it is always an occasion. Settling into the cockpit, briefing with the instructor, then take-off over the sea at the controls of an aircraft belonging to our partner Cretan Eagle Aviation. The smiles say it all: this is the moment months of planning finally become real.
The November intake has arrived in Crete for its first week of training. On the programme: getting to know the aircraft out on the apron, and the machine briefing, the first real contact with the aeroplane that will be with them throughout their flying training. This is the moment the course stops being a plan and becomes something concrete.
First day for the September intake, with a tour of the facilities and a visit to the maintenance workshop. Before you fly, you have to understand the machine: how it is maintained, what gets checked before every flight, and who carries the responsibility. An opening that sets the seriousness of the job straight away.
Our students were proud to represent ESA in their own region, at the Lyon Saint-Exupéry air show. Between questions from sixth-formers, questions from parents and conversations with enthusiasts from across the region, the stand was never empty. Nothing beats a student explaining their own course to someone still weighing it up.
Another fine day at the Andernos-les-Bains air show, organised by friends and fellow aviation enthusiasts. Our stand welcomed the curious, the passionate and future students, all with questions about life as an airline pilot. These events remain the best way to talk face to face, without filter, with the people thinking of taking the plunge.
The moment the first class of the dual Bachelor-Pilot programme received their degrees. A fine ceremony, shared with family, closing a course that had no precedent in combining university study with flight training. Congratulations to our graduates: they are the first to carry the colours of this programme, and certainly not the last.
A great meeting between students from both our programmes and our partner Cretan Eagle Aviation. A moment of exchange built around a shared passion for flying. Aviation is more open to everyone than it has ever been.
Having finished their multi-crew cooperation course, the students now begin preparing for airline selection, the last key step before launching their careers.
We have just taken delivery of our new shuttle. Smart and comfortable, it is about to start running back and forth to the airport. Our thanks, too, to Alexandros, who drives our students every day.
The mandarins and clementines in our student residence garden have been quietly growing and have just ripened. No treatments, no tricks, just natural fruit full of sunshine and patience. Perfect for a vitamin break between revision and flying.
At the students' request we converted one of the bedrooms into a revision room. Everyone lent a hand; building it together was a great experience.
Students organise informal football sessions themselves, which makes for good moments together and helps newcomers settle in easily. These are a sign of how at home they feel and how much they want to make the most of the experience. On the pitch, laughing, playing and working together breaks the ice and builds the team spirit that is indispensable in aviation.
First day today for our new intake, with a little nervousness and a lot of concentration.
Congratulations to Paul, who has been hired by Luxair. He is now flying the Dash Q400 and will move on to the B737.
A big well done to Rodolphe, who has been hired by Globe Air. He now flies the Cessna Citation Mustang C510. A fine career change for a former business engineer.
Anthony meets Béatrice Vialle, the first woman to fly Concorde.
The great SFMA gathering. As every year, our students were proud to represent their school.