Want to obtain a pilot license in Europe, but completely lost in requirements, schools, and prices?
Whether you are going for an airline career (Integrated or Modular ATPL) or flying for pleasure at weekends (PPL), you finish our call with three things in hand: the training route that fits your budget and your calendar, a shortlist of academies we have checked against fixed criteria, and the list of questions to put to each one — including the one that makes an academy state in writing what its price does not include.
Get My Training Plan
Three things you leave with
Not advice in general. These three, in writing, after one call.
A shortlist — and the names we left off it
We keep a Red Zone list of EASA academies we do not recommend: aircraft unavailable for months, maintenance delays, billing that grows after the contract is signed. Seven academies are on it today. You get the shortlist that fits you — and, for any school you are already considering, a straight answer on whether it is on the list and why.
The €15,000 nobody quotes you
Advertised price and final invoice are two different numbers. Landing fees, VAT, fuel surcharges, re-sits, aircraft and examiner hire add about €15,000 to a €55,000–60,000 programme. Winter does the same to the calendar: 18 promised months become 22–24, and those months are rent nobody quoted you. We show you what to put in writing before you pay, and which schools and start dates keep you flying through winter.
Strictly €0 for You
Our service is free for future pilots - no fees, no marked-up prices, no commitments. We are paid a commission by the academy you enrol with, out of its marketing budget: your price is the academy's official direct rate either way. We take no exclusivity from any academy and we recommend non-partner schools where they fit you better.
How an academy gets on your shortlist
Four questions we put to every academy before we recommend it. You get the answers in writing — including the ones the academy would rather not give.
Aircraft per student
How many active students share one airworthy aircraft in peak season, July–August? Our threshold: no more than 4–5.
Winter capacity
What happens when the weather stops flying? Are simulator slots reserved so IFR modules continue?
ATPL theory pass rate
What share of students drop out at the 14 theory exams, and what does the academy do for those falling behind?
What the price does not include
VAT, landing fees, fuel surcharges, aircraft and examiner hire for the checkride — itemised, in writing, before any deposit.
An academy that will not answer these in writing does not go on your shortlist.
Your 3-Step Pathway to the Cockpit
📝 Take the assessment
16 questions about your goal, budget, timeline, medical status and right to study. Five minutes. Every answer changes what we recommend.
🎯 See your training profile
At the end of the assessment you get your EASA profile and the pathways that match it — integrated, modular, or PPL first.
🗺️ Get your plan on a call
A free 15-minute call. You leave with the shortlist and the questions to ask each academy before you pay a deposit — including the ones that make it state in writing what its price does not cover. We then set up the calls with the academies ourselves and sit in on them with you, so those questions get asked together.
Who you will be talking to
Oleksandr, founder, Skybound Bridge
Skybound Bridge is one person in Warsaw, not a call centre. You will be talking to me, every time.
There is no sales target here. If the right answer for you is an academy that pays us nothing, that is the answer you get.
Not going for an airline job?
Then most of the above is over-engineered for you. A PPL starts from around €7,200 all-in, and the spread across Europe for the same licence is wide enough to be worth checking before you sign up at the nearest airfield. Where you end up depends on where you live, what you can spend and how often you can realistically fly — that is what the assessment sorts out.
The questions that matter here are different too: how far the airfield is from home, how the club books aircraft at weekends, what an hour actually costs once landing fees are in, and whether you can keep flying through winter. Same assessment, different shortlist.