Thursday last week kicked off the 16th Annual International Flight School Operators Conference 2025 in Orlando, Florida, with record attendance and the exhibit space sold out with a waiting list.

A yearly gathering of training providers, government officials, and vendors working with the flight training community, the conference updates attendees on changes in our industry, discusses current challenges and opportunities, and helps attendees share information that improves the quality and efficiency of flight training throughout the entire staining system.

Federal Agencies Updates

Technically kicking off on Wednesday afternoon, and continuing into Thursday and Friday, the conference began discussing hot topics in federal agency and regulatory updates over the past year.

Discussion of changes in FAA regulatory topics including CFI currency, 141 regulation discussions, and trends in airman certification was covered Wednesday afternoon.

Julean Thorpe, Program Manager, Flight Training Security Program, TSA started the briefing information on Thursday, specifically discussing new rule implementations for TSA requirements that became a final rule in late 2024. A review of the TSAs offerings, practices, and some of the backlogs being experienced was highlighted.

Jiri Marousek, President, NATA Compliance Services discussed the services related, primarily focused on the services they offer about fingerprinting services for flight training providers and how they integrate with the flight training community for providers of training to non-U.S. citizens.

Cecilia Jeffus, Field Representative for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) wrapped up the federal panels with an overview of what schools need to do to be approved as a provider school for non-U.S. student training. With foreign students a critical part of many flight training providers' business models and our overall aviation training sector, this information.

FSANA appreciates the federal agencies that make the effort to be a part of the conference each year as we work to share information and best practices with flight training providers to ensure compliance and increase efficiency.

Thursday’s lunch session included long-time aviation hiring sector guru, Kit Darby. Kit spent the session discussing recent, current, and expected future trends in airline hiring and characterized what that means for the aviation training sector.

His discussion made note of how the airline sector was affected by, and transitioned through the effects of Covid and how it is rebounding into 2025 and beyond. Additional factors such as how failure to deliver airframes by Boeing, challenges with engine delivery in some Airbus products, and challenges with transitioning FO pilots in regionals to captain slots due to a need to build time in those FOs before they can serve as captains in regional airlines to fill captain slots that were hired away by mainline carriers that backfilled their hiring during the Covid rebound. Our airline industry transitioned a significant number of pilots into mainline service to fill those that left for early retirement offerings during Covid.

When considered relative to historic airline hiring practices, hiring during the last 3 years has been five times that of record hiring periods in the past. As many airlines have had to park aircraft over the past two years, we have seen a constricted ability for airlines to expand to meet the market demand, which has allowed pilot production to meet hiring demands better than might have been possible without those systemic constrictions due to airframe availability. As those airframes and engines get delivered, and regional airlines catch up with captain upgrades, that hiring process is going to accelerate again.

Other factors that seem to indicate a heavy need for pilot training throughput is the fact that established mainline airlines expect to see approximately 50% of their pilot population retire by 2030. This indicates a continued need to bring in new pilot hires. New airframes coming into service means a need for more pilots. A general multiplier of 10-12 pilots per airframe is an industry-accepted metric. Due to pilot hours in service by month requirements, we are restricted by how many hours a pilot can fly, which means, if airlines want to fly more capacity, they need more pilots.

As the structural systems in our aviation sector are solved, bring more aircraft online, and allow further expansion, the demand for pilots will remain strong and grow in upcoming years. Which means, if we correlate these points, that the market for pilot training will continue to remain strong and robust in the upcoming years.

Last week at the Disney Swan Hotel, International Aerospace Accrediting Commission (IAAC) Executive Director Tom Kube led the third annual Accreditation workshop for schools seeking accreditation. Twenty-six aviation professionals, representing 15 schools, participated. The program covered all aspects of the IAAC process including Standards of Accreditation, Application process, Self-Study, requirements for School Catalogs and Enrollment Contracts, and much more.

To date, the first school to achieve IAAC Accreditation is Thrust Flight with locations in Addison, Denison, and Conroe, Texas. Currently, there are seven applicant schools representing 10 locations across the US. The Commission has oriented over 100 school officials of which approximately 10% have applied.

The IAAC has used the past two years to focus on its applicant schools and ramping up its accrediting program. The Commission aims to become recognized by the US Department of Education (US DoED) and become a “Gatekeeping” agency for Federal Student Tuition Aid under the programs commonly referred to as Title IV.

Tom provided an update on the efforts to prepare for the submission of the Commission’s Petition for Recognition. Essentially, the Petition document is a combination of an Application and a Self-Study by which the DoED evaluates how the IAAC meets or exceeds the regulatory requirements to become a recognized accrediting commission.

Germinated in 2015 by FSANA, the International Aerospace Accrediting Commission became a separate and independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2023, which is a requirement for US DoED recognition.

Schools may learn more about the IAAC online at www.iaac.aero.

The General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC) Winter 2025 Newsletter is now out for your educational indulgence!

The winter 2025 edition covers topics in articles including:

• General Aviation Safety Performance Update
• Recent Fly Safe Topics Cover Vestibular Illusions, Overreliance on Automation, Flight Data Monitoring, and Safety Culture
• New Rotorcraft Collective Video Covers the Pitfalls of PED Use
• New Online Aviation Meteorology Reference Now Available
• Safety Enhancement Spotlight — Safety Culture

A quarterly publication, the GAJSC Fly Safe Flyer is crafted to talk about to+pics relating to pertinent and timely safety concerns in the national airspace system.

You can view, or sign up to get the newsletter sent to you quarterly at:

https://www.gajsc.org/newsletter/

The General Aviation Awards Program has just released the names of those who are honored with being district winners! Each of these individuals is now one of the finalists for the national award of top AMT, CFI, or FAASTeam Representative for the year where they will be honored at Oshkosh 2025.

FSANA offers congratulations to each of these, thanks for their work in the industry, and best of luck as the GA Awards Committee evaluates who will win this year's top honors!

Pilots may wonder, why is it important to use my name as it appears on my government-issued ID? In a recent episode of the Pilot Minute video series, Federal Air Surgeon Dr. Susan Northrop explains how certification delays caused by a name error can be avoided by checking the MedXPress entry against your official government-issued identification. If the two do not match, be sure to revise any name variation in your MedXPress account to reflect your full name on your federal or state-issued ID and save valuable time getting your medical certificate.

To watch this and other videos, visit bit.ly/FAAPilotMinute.  

On January 21, 2025 the FAA released an update the Designee Management Policy guidance, Order 8000.95D.

DPEs are encouraged to be familiar with the updated policy.

Click here to see FAA Order 8000.95D - Designee Management Policy..