America's Largest Airline

A typical four-passenger airplane might not look like much compared to a 400-passenger Boeing 747, but when you put General Aviation's (GA's) 211,000 active airplanes together, they form America's largest source of air transportation.

GA flies 166 million passengers every year, making it America's largest "airline." That's more passengers than American Airlines, United Air Lines, and Northwest Airlines combined.

The World's Pilots Train at GA Flight Schools

Many people think that the majority of airline pilots come from the military. That was true years ago, but today, 90% of new airline pilots are trained by private flight schools and universities located in the United States.

Even the U.S. Air Force uses civilian flight schools. All U.S. Air Force pilot candidates begin their military flight training by undergoing 50 hours of Introductory Flight Training (IFT) flying traditional small general aviation training aircraft at one of 180 different a civilian flight schools throughout the United States. During this training, these Air Force pilot candidates must successfully earn their civilian private pilot license before they can advance into the military’s own Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) program.

From the Fortune 500 to Mom & Pop Schools

The United States has more than 3,500 flight schools. Many are large, formal schools with advanced curricula, state-of-the-art simulators, and college degree programs.

Others are small businesses run by people who love teaching others to fly. If you look hard enough, you still can find the one-airplane, one-person flight schools that operate from grass runways in small-town America.

All of these schools are run by professionals and are closely supervised by the Federal Aviation Administration. But more importantly, they are run by people who have invested their lives and fortunes building a business so that they could live their version of the American dream.

In fact, Warren E. Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, so believes in the business of flight training that he purchased the largest flight school in the world, America's own FlightSafety International, which trains more than 65,000 pilots a year.

Your Personal Use of GA

When you fly on any type of commercial airliner, take a moment to think about the training provided to the pilots and flight crew by one of America's GA flight schools.

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