FSANA receives daily communications from both members and non-members on all topics related to the flight training industry. While the global need for pilots will continue into the future, the demand for airline pilots in the United States is starting to adjust to a more normalized level.

Demand for CFIs is still ongoing however there has been a slowing of the rapid attrition in the space. When the economy began to restart, recovering from COVID-related shutdowns, hiring accelerated quickly for CFIs who had gained experience during the gap and were quickly hired as airlines refilled their pilot staffing pools.

Another side of the pilot equation is the airline fleet mix. In 2019, approximately 50% of the U.S. domestic enplaned airline passengers originated their flights on a regional airline.

According to the Regional Airline Association (RAA), the number of U.S. domestic originated enplaned regional airline passengers was 35% in 2022. This means that more passengers were originating their domestic flights on larger, single aisle aircraft.

Regional airline aircraft are limited in seating capacity to 50-76 seats under the agreed scope clauses between the airline pilots and their respective airlines.

Today, there is a new fleet mix model in play. The Airbus A220, Boeing 737 MAX 7 and the Embraer 195 E2. One of these single-aisle large aircraft can replace up to three regional-size aircraft. These aircraft require a 2 person crew in the cockpit. The pilot-to-seat ratios have a significant difference which equates to cost savings and operating efficiencies.

Another benefit of these new airline aircraft is that they become much more airport-friendly since they can accommodate more seats. This helps reduce runway and gate space demand. No matter how good the technology becomes, one runway can only accommodate one aircraft at a time. The same holds true for the passenger gate areas at airports. One gate and one parked aircraft.

100-150 seats

3,450 nautical

Boeing 737 MAX 7 (aircraft deliveries to begin in 2024)

138-153 seats

3,800 nautical

120-146 seats

2,600 nautical

The past several years have seen unprecedented demand for pilots. This high demand has driven many ab initio flight training organizations to record annualized flight hours and new student starts.

How long this growth pattern can be sustained is a question to which we do not currently have a complete answer. Flight school owners and managers should not be sitting back on autopilot. Instead, they must continue to manage and improve their business models for when the industry momentum slows and returns to a more normal pattern.

As one flight school owner recently noted during a conversation, right now, the flight training environment has been blessed with customers. The question is when will it slow and is our school ready for the change.

Many of the best flight schools in the U.S. will be in Las Vegas Feb 21-23, 2024 to exchange information and to learn about and discuss the ever-changing world of flight training. Every flight school should be there if they intend to remain viable and forward-looking with their business models. Plus come and help us celebrate our 15th Anniversary.

Happy Holidays and may peace and goodness find everyone as we enter 2024!

Robert Rockmaker

President & CEO

FSANA

Early bird registration discount for the FSANA 2024 Annual Conference and Trade Show and 15th Anniversary celebration is slated for February 21-23, 2024 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas ends December 31, 2023.

Aviation training sectors are seeing rapid changes, fleet modifications, and new technologies available to help fill the career-pilot pipeline. These and many other topics will be discussed in the 2024 conference.

The 2024 Conference and Trade Show is where current and future flight school owners and operators, managers, chief instructors and others along with a major portion of the supply chain come together to meet and discuss the state of flight training. They exchange and learn together in a collaborative process which yields positive results for all attendees.

9am - 2pm - Committee Meetings

3pm - Airline Updates General Session

6pm Reception and Dinner

8am - 4pm General and breakout sessions

Noon - Luncheon Speaker

4pm Flight School Workshops

9am - 3pm General and breakout sessions

For more specific conference information, visit the following links:

The Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) is again surveying flight training providers (instructors and businesses that provide training) to learn more about current compensation trends in the industry.

We are inviting all providers who are willing to share information about compensation in their operations to take the following short survey (12 questions).

All data will be reported by FSANA and shared with other industry associations in upcoming articles to help the overall flight training industry have better data about current trends. Any data will be de-identified from respondents in reporting the survey data. This data will be compared and presented with trend data from previous surveys to see trending.

Thank you for providing quality feedback which will help support the industry going forward.

The Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) remains engaged with legislative efforts on behalf of our members and the flight training community. Aviation training can be impacted by both FAA regulations and/or the legislative process.

FSANA is tracking discussions and language in the FAA Reauthorization bills that relate to pilot training. Discussions, and by some descriptions, disputes, are happening related to changing of pilot retirement age, allowance for additional flight time crediting for things such as specific flight simulator time, and airport restrictions related to Reagan National Airport flights. These matters are helping to hold up progress on the bill.

Stress on the aviation system has added pressure to the long-term bill negotiations, amid concerns around a shortage of air traffic controllers, outdated technology, near-misses, and unstable funding. The second short-term extension (H.R. 6503), expected to pass the Senate before they leave for recess, also sets up a bottleneck of legislative work as Congress heads into 2024 with dual funding deadlines in January and February.

“I hope we can resolve any remaining issues and get the FAA a five-year extension so they can make these technology improvements, hire the people they need to hire,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said. “We just have to keep working.”

At this time, the FAA reauthorization deadline is being extended to March 8, 2024, however, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) noted, “I’m very concerned, given the time we have, the limited progress we have, and the constantly moving the goalpost in negotiations, we’re getting to the point we’ll be forced to extend the FAA’s authority until 2025.”

Progression of these funding bills and the items included in them has the potential to greatly affect the flight training community. FSANA and our DC based legislative team will continue to work with legislative contacts and update you on any movement of these efforts or points of interest that are included in the bills as they proceed or are passed.

Most importantly, FSANA will make the reach to our members if and when needed for continued broad support and advocacy on the DC Hill.

FSANA is pleased to announce that the 3rd annual Designated Pilot Examiners (DPE) Symposium is March 12-13, 2024. The Symposium will be at the B Resort and Spa.

The event will again bring together current and future DPEs along with the FAA. Topics about examiner best practices, how to become an examiner, how to work with flight schools, and much more will again be discussed. The quality of information and educational sharing is high level and attendees are provided with loads of insights, all aimed to help the DPE community to improve their knowledge and quality delivery of airman practical tests.

The program, attendee registration and room reservation information will be available toward the end of December. For now, mark your calendars if you are a current or future DPE and want to engage more with the DPE community.

FSANA continues to develop forward looking topics in the airman practical testing segment.

Every airman practical test requires three functioning elements during the test:

Two of these components are prone to human dynamics. It is just part of the process. There can be positive or negative dynamics between the test applicant and the examiner. We know it is a high-stress event for applicants. DPEs are there as a representative of the FAA Administrator, (FAA-A) doing the work of the FAA.

Examiners serve at the pleasure of the FAA-A and are a direct extension of the FAA-A. All DPEs are expected to deliver the highest level of human behavior from the time they first communicate with the test applicant until the conclusion of the practical flight test.

Some of the best DPE behaviors include:

There are many topics to be covered and DPE human behavior has come forward during the past few months. Interpersonal dynamics and behaviors in relation to DPE - Applicant relationships need to be expanded and better understood. This topic and more will be included at the 2024 DPE Symposium March 12-13, 2024 in Orlando.

Continuing their growth and strong pilot training contributions throughout the U.S. aviation system, ATP recently announced two new milestones.

First, they announced that they were adding 40 additional Cessna Skyhawk aircraft, accelerating their growth. Second, an announcement from the ATP Jets noted that they had graduated the 20,000th Airline Transport Pilot Certification Training Program (ATP CTP) Student.

Enhancing their capacity is continuing to help build infrastructure that is meeting the demands for training. Most of us understand this from a traditional training pathway. But the ATP CTP program is a unique program and this milestone speaks to the volume of pilots who have gone through their programs since 2015.

In their release, ATP noted that "nearly 50% of all new hire airline pilots attend ATP JETS for their CTP training, sponsored by their airline. A provider of this training, they have filled a very needed gap in the training infrastructure that was generated by regulator changes that require pilots seeking a multi-engine ATP certificate to first complete an ATP CTP course before they are eligible to take the FAA ATP knowledge test, and then eventually proceed to full multi-engine ATP certification.

FSANA congratulates these and the many other milestones that ATP has reached as it continues to be a large part of the pilot training pipeline in the United States.

You can learn more about these two milestones at:

The Regional Airline Association (RAA) has just released its 2023 Annual Report which includes information about what RAA is doing within the aviation industry and trends of regional airlines.

The report highlights that 35% of scheduled passenger departures were operated by regional airlines and 64% of U.S. airports with scheduled passenger air service get their ONLY source of air service from regional airlines.

Regional airlines remain a major factor in our aviation sector and a critical job sector to which flight instructors transition after service with flight training provider jobs. The connection between the flight training industry and regional airlines remains a critical connection point to understand.

EAA's 2024 AViation Scholarships application window is now open. Flight training and post-secondary scholarships are available for individuals over the age of 16. Applications will be taken until March 1, 2024.

Intended to help cover costs at any flight school in the United States or Canada, the scholarships are useable beyond the university environment. Scholarships can help pay for study of aerospace or aeronautical engineering, aviation business administration, air traffic control, aviation maintenance, professional flight, or any aviation-related STEM field.

To help enhance safety in business aircraft operations, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has produced a new publication entitled, “Reducing Runway Excursions in Business Aviation: A high-level guide on mitigating the risks.” The 25-page document examines many of the psychological and physical factors that cause excursions on takeoffs and landings and explains how to address them in training programs and safety management systems.

“The Runway Excursion Guide is intended to raise awareness about a significant challenge facing the business aviation industry,” said Noah Yarborough, NBAA manager of flight operations. “Written in plain English, the document contains a series of practical steps that flight crews and operators can take to improve airport safety in a pro-active manner. The guide is also designed to be a reference for a number of factors to consider, along with links to more in-depth reading from industry resources that have spent considerable time studying the causes of, and possible solutions, to runway excursions.”

See the guide.

The 4th generation part 23 aircraft manufacturer, Elixir Aircraft, has marked the next phase of their continued advancement by receiving EASA Certification for the Full Glass Cockpit layout.

World Wide head of sales Mike Tonkin explains: “With this new flight deck configuration now certified, the Elixir corresponds perfectly for the global flight training market.

An interesting marketing highlight, the Elixir 100HP is billed as an aircraft that reduces carbon emissions by nearly 70% compared to other older generation aircraft. It is powered by a 912iS 100HP Rotax engine.

You can learn more about Elixir Aircraft by clicking here.

The International Aerospace Accrediting Commission (IAAC) headed by Thomas Kube, executive director, will piggyback its Spring 2024, "Seeking Accreditation Workshop" with the FSANA 2024 Annual Conference and Trade Show in Las Vegas. The all-day IAAC workshop is being held on Tuesday February 20. Independent of the FSANA conference, it requires a separate registration fee.

For more information, contact the IAAC at 480-451-7205 or tkube@iaac.aero