UK flight school collapsed into liquidation

Liquidators have been instructed to wind down Go Fly Oxford, which provided lessons for commercial and private pilots licences.

Colin Wilson and Emma Mifsud, of Opus Restructuring & Insolvency, have been appointed as joint liquidators for Go Fly Oxford Ltd back in May 2025.

But new records filed by the liquidators have revealed an HMRC secondary preferential claim of £118,132.

Ten unsecured claims have been received by the liquidators totalling £60,314.

Further unsecured creditor claims estimated in the statement of affairs total £88,955, the published documents say.

(Image: Ed Nix)

Over the past year, liquidators say they investigated whether any recoveries could be made from directors or other parties, but concluded there were no further viable assets or claims.

Aircraft shown in the 2024 accounts at a book value of £238,181 had been sold before liquidation. The liquidators found the sales appeared to be at fair value and saw no basis for a claim over the transactions.

The aircraft sales happened about seven months before liquidation, outside the relevant period for a preference claim.

The aircraft were reportedly transferred to creditors and leased back so the company could continue trading.

A purchaser of a PA34-200 aircraft was said to owe £6,000. The liquidators received £4,980; the remaining £1,020 was treated as settled because the purchaser had paid a company liability instead.

Two employees were made redundant on 31 March 2025 and were given information to submit claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.

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The flying school was based at Oxford Airport when it collapsed.

Its website, which has since been shut down, described the business: “At Go Fly Oxford we pride ourselves on offering a personal and tailored approach to pilot training.

“We know that people learn at different paces and in different ways, this makes catering for individual needs our main target.”

Oxford Airport’s main trade is pilot training. Flight schools at Oxford train pilots who go on to fly for more than 100 airlines in the UK and globally, including for British Airways.

Historically, the airport has been Europe’s foremost centre for professional pilot training with well over 40,000 students having started their careers there.

At one point, the airport’s runway was the busiest in the world with more than 235,000 movements a year (a take-off or landing) and up to 1,100 flights in a single day, its website says.

The business’ report says: “Over the course of 2025, the company will be complementing its Diamond DA40 fleet with a new fleet of Elixir aircraft, a safer and more efficient type of aircraft, which will provide a much reduced cost per flight hour.

“This, along with growth in enrolments and full utilisation of the European base will ensure the profitability of the business in the coming years.”