Buyers circle failed flight school Soar Aviation as administrators seek to sell

Several interested parties are circling failed flight school Soar Aviation, which has been cut down to a skeleton staff after administrators were appointed.

The collapse of high profile flight school Soar Aviation has seen buyers come out of the woodwork, with several kicking the tyres of the business.

The meeting of creditors on Tuesday saw several details of the business come to light, including as much as $700,000 in entitlements owed; an amount which may outstrip assets of the business.

Unsecured creditors are reportedly owed as much as $850,000, while aircraft leases totalling almost $5.2m are outstanding.

Administrators of the business are seeking to sell the flight school, which at its peak was one of the largest in the country.

Soar Aviation shut its doors on December 28, with administrators slashing staff down to a skeleton level of seven, with only one left at its Sydney site, in a bid to keep costs low.

Administrators have retained the slim staffing numbers to ensure Soar Aviation meets its mandated minimum requirements with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Prior to shutting its doors Soar Aviation boasted a team of 30 instructors and 24 support staff.

Founded in 2013, Soar had operations at Melbourne’s Moorabbin airport and Sydney’s Bankstown Airport.

Bankstown and Moorabbin airport have reportedly offered support to the company as administrators seek a buyer.

However, administrators are also scoping the potential sale price if Soar Aviation fails to find a buyer, with valuers soon to look over the seven planes the flight school owned outright.

The 49 other planes in Soar Aviation’s fleet were leased from NAB, CBA, Westpac, Bank of Melbourne, and Bank of Queensland.

If sold, the future of the flight school’s relationship with Box Hill Tafe, its education partner, is in doubt and will be subject to subsequent negotiation between the buyer and the Tafe.

Box Hill Tafe temporarily suspended flight training at Soar Aviation in 2019.

Soar Aviation’s registered training organisation status was also temporarily revoked after an audit by the Australian Skills Quality Authority, the national regulatory body for vocational education.

The flight school’s accreditation was restored in March 2020, but still faced sanctions from the skills authority.

The Tafe has been in the sights of lawyers from Gordon Legal, who have led a class action of almost 200 former Soar Aviation students alleging they received substandard education at the flight school and failed to obtain their commercial pilot’s licence.

Lawyers from Gordon Legal have been in dialogue with the administrators, however potential costs arising from the class action are unknown.

Soar Aviation founder, Neel Khokhani left the business some time ago.

At the time he said his departure was unrelated to regulatory or legal scrutiny Soar Aviation had been subject to.

Mr Khokhani is not listed as a creditor.