26 January 2026
Tayside Aviation, one of the UK’s longest-established flight training organisations, will be formally dissolved, bringing a definitive end to a collapse that left many student pilots grounded and millions of pounds of training fees lost.
Administrators Interpath Advisory have confirmed that the company has now moved from administration to dissolution, with the business expected to be struck off the Companies House register within three months.
The decision follows the publication of the administrators’ final progress report, covering the closing stages of an insolvency that began in April 2023 and has delivered only minimal returns to most creditors .
Founded in 1968 and long associated with professional pilot training at Dundee Airport, Tayside Aviation collapsed abruptly in early 2023. The school had trained thousands of pilots over five decades, including airline cadets and military students, and was widely regarded as a cornerstone of Scottish flight training.
When the company entered administration, many students discovered that substantial sums paid in advance for modular and integrated training were unsecured. In several cases, students were part-way through PPL, CPL or ATPL courses with no immediate route to completion, forcing some to seek expensive retraining elsewhere or abandon flying altogether.
Those student claims ultimately formed a significant part of the unsecured creditor pool.
According to the final report, unsecured creditors were owed £2.84 million in total. They received a first and final dividend of just 0.82p in the pound – that’s less than one penny for each pound they were owed. The total amounts to £23,395, paid under the insolvency “prescribed part” rules.
This means that most former students will recover only a fraction of the money they paid for flight training, despite the sale of aircraft and other assets during the administration. Any unclaimed dividends have now been lodged with the Accountant of Court.
By contrast, employees were treated as preferential creditors and received 100p in the pound for agreed claims totalling £33,731, covering wage arrears and holiday pay .
The bulk of funds raised during the administration came from the sale of Tayside Aviation’s aircraft fleet, which generated £516,000. Additional sums were realised from plant, machinery, book debts and cash balances, bringing total asset realisations to around £640,000.
Secured creditor Anthony Banks, who was owed £110,000 under a floating charge, received £78,581 and thus suffered a shortfall. Other secured lenders, including Royal Bank of Scotland, were confirmed as having no outstanding balance.
Interpath Advisory’s total remuneration over the course of the administration amounted to £299,504.53 plus VAT, based on time costs approved by the creditors’ committee. In the final reporting period alone, the administrators charged 73.95 hours, largely relating to statutory compliance, distributions and closure work .
For UK general aviation, the demise of Tayside Aviation stands as a stark reminder of the risks faced by student pilots paying large sums upfront for training.
Last year, the aviation academy’s former lead engineer Stuart McPherson, admitted making bogus logbook entries. McPherson, 67, pleaded guilty to entering incorrect readings into logbooks and forging certificates of airworthiness between October 2021 and May 2022 at Tayside Aviation. McPherson told Dundee Sheriff Court he had felt under pressure from bosses.
