Last updated: 11/09/2026
This policy explains what personal information Almat Flying Academy collects about you, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what your rights are. It applies whenever you use our website, get in touch with us, book or buy from us, train or fly with us, or apply to work with us. We have tried to keep it clear and readable. If anything is unclear, please contact us using the details below.
1. Who we are
Almat Flying Academy Ltd is the “controller” of your personal information. This means we decide how and why it is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.
- Company name: Almat Flying Academy Ltd
- Company number: 11604577
- Registered office: The Grange, Church Lane, Budbrooke, Warwick, Warwickshire CV35 8QL
- Main training base: Unit 29B, Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green Airport, Crab Lane, Stourbridge DY7 5DY
- ICO registration number: ZC245370
2. How to contact us about your data
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer. If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your information, or you want to exercise any of your rights, please contact us:
- Email: info@almat.co.uk
- Post: Almat Flying Academy Ltd, Wolverhampton Halfpenny Green Airport, Unit 29B, Crab Ln, Stourbridge, DY7 5DY
- Phone: 02477 220 399
3. The information we collect
What we collect depends on how you deal with us.
When you contact us, enquire or request a free guide Your name, email address, phone number and anything you tell us in your message. This includes enquiries made through our website forms, live chat, email, phone, social media or in person.
When you request a free consultation or enquire as an international student As well as your contact details, the answers you give about your age range, country of residence, flying experience, whether you hold a pilot licence or medical certificate, your training plans, preferred start date and location.
When you book or buy from us Your name, email address, phone number, billing address, what you have bought and your order history. Card payments are handled by Stripe or Sumup. We do not see or store your full card details.
When you train with us, become a member or hire an aircraft We need to check that you can fly legally, so we collect:
- your date of birth
- copies of your pilot licence, ratings and approvals
- a copy of your medical certificate (see section 5)
- your training records
- a photograph of you, so we can identify you
- your weight and height for aircraft weight and balance calculations
- flight bookings for organisation and flying hours for currency
- emergency contact details
We keep these records on paper, electronically, or both. Electronic records may be stored in our cloud-based customer database (CRM), our cloud-based flight and training management system, or Google’s cloud services. The CRM and the flight and training management system are provided by third parties (see section 8).
When you create an account on our website Your login details, and the orders and bookings linked to your account.
When you use our website Information about your device and how you use our website, such as pages visited, how you arrived at the site and your approximate location. We collect this using Google Analytics and Facebook (Meta) analytics tools, which use cookies and similar technologies. See section 11.
When you use our online flight and training management system As a customer, you can log in to our cloud-based flight and training management system to see information such as your bookings and training records. Your login is managed by the system’s provider. We do not store or have access to your password. The system records when you log in and what you do in it, for security purposes.
When you apply for a job Your CV, covering letter, qualifications, licences and ratings, and any other information you choose to send us.
CCTV We may use CCTV at our premises. If we do, it records images of people in the areas covered, and we will display signs so you know it is in operation.
Photos, video, Youtube and our Social Media Channels. We will ask for your permission before using your photo or video in our marketing (including our websote) or social media, or recording you for our podcast. You can withdraw your permission at any time.
4. Why we use your information and our lawful basis
Data protection law says we must have a valid reason, known as a “lawful basis”, for each way we use your information.
| What we use it for | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to your enquiry, consultation request or chat message, and sending free guides you ask for | Legitimate interests (responding to people who contact us), or steps you have asked us to take before entering into a contract |
| Taking bookings, providing training, flights, aircraft hire and membership, and taking payment | Contract |
| Checking licences, ratings and medical certificates, and keeping training records, | To ensure you can fly / operate our aircraft legally |
| Keeping a photograph of you to confirm your identity | Making sure the right person is flying, ability for instructor to identify student. |
| Operating CCTV to protect our premises, aircraft, staff and visitors, and to prevent and detect crime | Security |
| Keeping financial and tax records | Legal obligation |
| Sending you marketing emails and SMS about our courses, offers, podcast episodes and news | Consent, or, if you are an existing customer, our legitimate interest in telling you about similar services (you can opt out at any time) |
| Understanding how our website is used and improving it, using Google Analytics and Facebook (Meta) analytics | Consent, given through our cookie settings |
| Managing our business, internal reporting and dealing with disputes or legal claims | Legitimate interests |
| Assessing job applications | Legitimate interests, and steps before entering into a contract |
| Complying with requests from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the police or other authorities where the law requires us to | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether our interests are outweighed by your rights. You can ask us for more information about this.
5. Medical and other sensitive information
Your medical certificate reveals information which the law treats as “special category” data and protects more strictly. We only hold a copy of your medical certificate so we can confirm you hold the medical certificate you need to fly legally. We keep it securely and limit access to staff who need it.
The photograph we keep to identify you is not used for facial recognition software or any other automated identification.
We do not ask for other special category information. Please do not send it to us unless we ask for it.
6. Young people
Some of our customers and students are under 18. In this case training contracts should be signed by a parent or legal guardian.
7. Marketing
We will only send you marketing emails or SMS messages if you have agreed to receive them, or where permitted by law.
You can withdraw your marketing consent at any time. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link. You can opt out of SMS marketing by following the instructions in the message or by contacting us at info@almat.co.uk.
We will never sell your personal information or give it to others to use for marketing / research purposes.
8. Who we share your information with
We only share your information where we need to, and we require our suppliers to keep it secure and use it only on our instructions. We share information with:
- service providers who run our systems for us, including:
- Zoho (our cloud-based customer database, website forms and live chat)
- Our cloud-based flight and training management system provider Private Radar, which holds booking, training and flight records and manages customer logins
- Google (business email, cloud file storage, website analytics and tag management, and the reviews shown on our website)
- Meta (Facebook / Instagram / website analytics)
- Mailchimp (marketing emails)
- Our website hosting provider, Newtlabs
- WordPress and WooCommerce plugins that run our website and online shop
- Whatsapp for sending information via SMS.
- payment providers: Stripe and Sumup for card payments.
- aviation authorities and related organisations, such as the UK Civil Aviation Authority, flight examiners and other flying schools, where this is needed for your training, testing, licensing or aviation safety
- our insurers, where needed to arrange cover or deal with a claim
- professional advisers, such as our accountants, lawyers and auditors
- debt collection agencies, if an invoice remains unpaid
- the police and other authorities, where the law requires us to
Videos on our website are embedded from YouTube, and our social media pages are run on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. If you interact with us there, those platforms’ own privacy policies also apply.
We may transfer your contact details between our marketing and customer-management systems and the third-party platforms we use to provide email and SMS marketing services. We use these platforms on our behalf to manage and deliver our marketing communications and in accordance with your marketing preferences.
9. Transfers outside the UK
Some of our service providers store or process information outside the UK. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include the UK government’s adequacy regulations, or contracts approved by the UK Information Commissioner, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can contact us for more information.
10. How long we keep your information
We keep your records for at least the minimum period required by current UK law, including aviation, tax and company law.
| Information | Minimum period we keep it |
|---|---|
| Training records, and copies of licences and medical certificates | Throughout your training and for at least three years after you complete it, as required by UK aviation regulations |
| Customer, booking and financial records | The period required by tax and company law |
| Enquiries that do not lead to a booking | 2 years |
| CCTV recordings | Only retained in the event of an incident. |
| Marketing preferences | Until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent. After you unsubscribe, we keep a record of your preference so we do not contact you with marketing again. |
| Job applications from unsuccessful applicants | No minimum. |
| Website cookies | As set out in our cookie policy |
Once the minimum period has passed, you can ask us to delete or securely dispose of your records, and we will do so unless we have another lawful reason to keep them.
11. Cookies and similar technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, such as local storage, to make the site work and to understand how it’s used and make improvements. You can change your cookie preferences anytime here.
Essential cookies. Some cookies are strictly necessary for the site to work — for example, keeping items in your basket, remembering you’re logged in, and letting our caching system speed up page loading. These don’t require your consent, and we can’t offer you a way to turn them off without breaking the site.
Cookies that need your agreement. Others, such as the analytics cookies used by Google Analytics, are only set if you agree to them via the cookie banner shown when you first visit.
The table below lists the cookies and similar technologies we currently use.
| Category | Name(s) | Set by | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | woocommerce_cart_hash, woocommerce_items_in_cart, wp_woocommerce_session_* | WooCommerce | Remembers what’s in your basket and manages checkout |
| Essential | wp-* | WordPress | Keeps you logged in to your account and remembers site preferences |
| Essential | [cache cookie name — CONFIRM with current host, Newtlabs; the previous name, wpSGCacheBypass, was specific to our old host, SiteGround, and no longer applies] | Our caching system | Speeds up page loading |
| Essential | _stripe_mid, _stripe_sid | Stripe | Identifies you while making a card payment |
| Essential | [Sumup cookie names — CONFIRM] | Sumup | Identifies you while making a card payment |
| Essential | siqlsdb, utsdb (and related local storage) | Zoho SalesIQ | Runs our website live chat |
| Preference/consent | [set by the chosen consent tool — CONFIRM once selected, e.g. CookieConsent for Cookiebot] | [CMP name] | Remembers your cookie choices so we don’t ask again on every visit |
| Analytics (consent required) | _ga, _ga_*, _gid | Google Analytics, via Google Tag Manager | Helps us understand how visitors use the site, so we can improve it. Set only once you agree. |
| Advertising (consent required) | _gcl_au [CONFIRM whether Google Ads conversion tracking is in use — if not, this cookie may not apply] | [purpose — CONFIRM] | |
| Advertising (consent required) | [CONFIRM whether a Meta/Facebook pixel is in use — not confirmed either way during testing] | Meta | If in use: helps us understand how visitors use the site and measure our Facebook/Instagram advertising. Set only once you agree. |
| Functional | PREF, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, VSC, remote_sid | YouTube | Set when you play an embedded video from our channel, using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode |
| Functional | [CONFIRM] | Google (reviews widget) | Displays the Google reviews shown on our website |
Where a cookie is set by a third party (Stripe, Sumup, Zoho, Google, YouTube, Meta), that organisation’s own privacy and cookie information also applies — see the links in Section 8 above.
How to control cookies. Besides using our cookie banner, most browsers let you block or delete cookies yourself, though doing so may stop parts of the site working properly, including checkout and live chat.
12. Keeping your information secure
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, whether it is held electronically or on paper. These include limiting access to staff who need it, using reputable cloud-based systems with secure logins , keeping paper records in locked storage and training our team. No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and will act promptly if a problem occurs.
If you have a login for our website or our flight and training management system, please keep your password private and use one you don’t use anywhere else. We will never ask you for your password. If you think someone else has accessed your account, change your password and let us know straight away.
13. Your rights
You have the right to:
- access a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances
- ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances
- object to us using your information where we rely on legitimate interests, and to object at any time to direct marketing
- ask for your information to be transferred to you or another organisation in certain circumstances (data portability)
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.
You can see some of your information yourself by logging in to our flight and training management system. If anything there is wrong, please let us know.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 2. We will normally respond within one month, and there is usually no charge. We may need to confirm your identity first.
We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
14. Do you have to give us your information?
You do not have to give us your information, but if you don’t, we may not be able to do what you have asked. For example, we cannot provide flying training or aircraft hire without the licence, medical and personal details that aviation regulations and safe operation require.
15. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first using the details in section 2. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and let you know the outcome.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator:
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top. If we make significant changes, we will let you know where appropriate.