Liberty Quays Accommodation, Southampton

THIS INFORMATION HAS NOW CHANGED!!
At the time of my training accomodation was inclusive in the training fee of £93,800. However, since the CTC Aviation / L3 merger and subsequent L3 / Harris merger, this is no longer the case. At the time of writing this note, the base Integrated ATPL fee is £89,000 with optional accomodation billed at £200 per week. The style of accomodation offered is similar to that mentioned in the Liberty Quays blog post.

Photos courtesy of Elliott Chadwick

Disclaimer: The information contained within this accommodation post is based entirely on the experience of myself and other cadets within L3 Airline Academy / CTC Aviation and is intended to answer the questions I once had on accommodation prior to starting my course. The experience of others may well vary from property to property.

Introduction...

Following a change to accommodation practice within the Southampton area I've created this post as a more updated addition to the accommodation category. In recent months it would appear L3 is moving away from privately-owned residential housing to the more managed approach akin to that of University Halls. That's not to say that all residential properties have been taken out of the equation as many of them are still used but so it depends on what's available at the time you join.

Looking at this from the standpoint of ensuring a similar customer experience some private residential lets could do with some TLC so going forward I suppose these new student accomodation providers assure each trainee receives a modern and well-maintained living space. This post specifically highlights the Liberty Quays property, managed by Liberty Living, although others have been used in the past, such as myUniPad etc. To the best of my knowledge L3 CTS currently leases one entire block of bedrooms at Liberty Quays housing trainees / pilots at various stages of training from their initial ATPL Ground School right through to airline type rating courses.

Here are a few photos of the Liberty Quays property:

* Communal Flat Kitchen / Living Area *

* Standard Bedroom*

* Standard Bedroom En-suite Toilet / Shower *

Q: How far away is Liberty Quays from the Nursling Training Centre?

By road you're looking at roughly 7 miles each way so driving is pretty much essential. If you bare in mind how busy the A-road along the waterfront is during peak times a taxi/Uber to the training centre can be anywhere from £8-£17 and the drive itself could take anything from 10 minutes to half-an-hour. Unfortunately that's one thing you can't avoid: Southampton's traffic. L3 do provide a shuttle bus for ground school cadets though, read on.

Q: How many people do you share with in a flat?

According to Liberty Living, their Liberty Quays property has flats typically in four or six bedrooms setups each with en-suite and a shared communal kitchen as per the photos. 

Q: What's included in the accommodation?

With L3 opting to lease from a managed provider you'd get what you'd typically expect from university halls. According to the property manager Liberty Living, you'll receive:

• All bills included
• 50Mb/s WiFi
• 4ft Double Bed with under bed storage
• En-Suite Toilet / Shower
• Communal Kitchen (per flat)
• Cleaning of Communal Areas
• Individual Room Heating Controls
• TV Point
• Laundry Facilities
• Bike Storage
• On-site Supermarket (Co-Operative at time of writing)
• On-site Reception, Housekeeping & Maintenance Teams
• Shuttle Bus between Accommodation and Nursling Training Centre (Groundschool only - as of 2019)

Q: Is parking available?

No parking is available on-site. Street parking on neighbouring side roads is charged at around £1 per hour until 8pm (2018 prices). L3 provides a shuttle bus to ground school cadets to get them from the accommodation to the training centre in the morning and then back again in the evening.

Q: How far away from the city centre / other facilities are you? 

Not too far at all. From Liberty Quays you can walk to the following locations in the given time (SOURCE: Google Maps):

• ASDA - 16 minutes
• WestQuay Shopping Centre - 15 minutes
• ODEON - 20 minutes

Further afield the following locations by car are - in good traffic:

• IKEA - 10 minutes
• ALDI - 14 minutes

Question not answered here?

You may find answers to more general questions in my original Southampton Accommodation post. If not, feel free to send me a message and I'll do my best to find out the answer. Bare in mind the majority of information on Liberty Quays was sourced from either the management of the property, Liberty Living, or cadets who currently live there.