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Livening up airports.
General Aviation
growth trends
As we move into uncharted waters, Pat Malone asks how growth in the General Aviation industry will be affected
General Aviation (GA) is uniquely sensitive to economic factors, and
the industry is holding its breath to see just how hard it will be ham¬mered by the financial earthquake that has shifted the ground beneath every¬one's feet. Aviation is usually one of the first activities to feel the cold steel of the bean-counter's axe when times are tough, and they've rarely been as tough as they are today.
According to ICA0 (International Civil Aviation 0rganization), GA is defined as everything apart from military flying and commercial air transport. That makes GA a very broad church — so broad that it's often difficult to make accurate state¬ments of the financial health of the sector. 0ne facet of GA can be prospering while another is in the doldrums. In the current situation, however, everyone is in the same boat. Unfortunately, this boat is struggling to stay afloat.
The industry is so disparate that the interests of all within it cannot always be reconciled, and it's very difficult to frame legislation to fit all sectors. At one end of the spectrum are home-built aircraft,
balloons and gliders, some with no radio, or even a battery. At the other end there are luxurious charter helicopters and intercontinental business jets. Some GA aircraft are worth only a few thousand euros and fl y from farmers' fields, never venturing into controlled airspace. 0thers cost tens of millions of euros, use major airports and fl y IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) through controlled airways.
In contrast to the airlines, for whom business travellers represent a minority of passengers, almost 80 per cent of GA is business-related. The largest single sector in GA is flight training — producing the airline pilots of tomorrow, as well as the private pilots. Few airlines now train their own flight crew; aspiring pilots are ex¬pected to present themselves for employ¬ment with Airline Transport Pilots Licences (ATPLs) and Type Ratings on the aircraft they intend to fly. The integrated training course, the airlines' preferred route to an ATPL, can currently cost an aspiring pilot in excess of €150,000 in Europe, if Type Ratings and finance costs are included, and this merely allows the holder to ap¬ply for a job in a highly-cyclical industry where there are no guarantees of work.
Many of the young men and women coming out of general aviation with ATPLs today find they have incurred heavy debts, with little chance of employment in the foreseeable future. They may rue
GA is also one of
the 'pit canary'
industries that keels
over first when the
atmosphere
turns sour
fully reflect on the fact that an ATPL costs less than half as much in the USA, and that regulatory cost in Europe is a signifi¬cant factor in this disparity.
While GA tends to prosper when the airlines are doing well, it is also one of the 'pit canary' industries that keels over first when the atmosphere turns sour. Martin Robinson, Senior Vice President of the International Aircraft 0wners and Pilots Association says: "When the airlines are
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本文鏈接地址：EUROCONTROL EBAA IAOPA Yearbook 2009: The Business of Flying(12)
