Karen Walker/TAMPA
A campaign is to be launched to accelerate the revitalisation of the US general-aviation (GA) industry. The GA Team 2000 initiative will combine the efforts of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to increase the number of GA pilots. The goal is to achieve 100,000 new-student starts in 2000 and every following year.
The programme will be launched officially by January 1997, by which time a board of directors will have been appointed to develop a budget and define the tasks. Industry and aviation organisations are being invited to join the team for a fee of $5,000 each. Founding members include companies such as AlliedSignal, BFGoodrich, Cessna, Cirrus, FlightSafety International, Mooney, New Piper Aircraft, Raytheon Aircraft and Teledyne Continental.
At today's student start and drop-out rates, the AOPA believes that the US pilot population will drop from 650,000 to 530,000 by the year 2000. An effective student-start revitalisation programme, however, could expand that figure by the turn of the century to 700,000, says AOPA.
AOPA says its research has found a "startlingly more positive environment" for GA recently. Its target audience is in the 25-65- year-old age group, has a household annual income of over $50,000 and sees itself as "independent, adventurous, take-charge and competent."
The GA Team 2000 will aim to change the public's misconceptions about how expensive it is to learn to fly - most people over-estimated this cost in surveys - and how long it takes to get a pilot's licence.
It will also try to make flying courses more attractive to women and to an increasingly sophisticated customer base which demands better service.
Source: Flight International
