It is a curious anomaly. At a time when more people than ever are flying as airline passengers, the number flying as private pilots is plummeting. UK Civil Aviation Authority figures show that flying activity at schools and aerodromes has fallen 40% since 2005. The pattern in other mature markets is similar, while in most of the fastest growing regions for airline travel, there is barely a recreational aviation sector to speak of.
The reasons for the decline in weekend flying are many: a loss of private aerodromes, many swallowed up for development; a decline in military-trained pilots; rising costs and changes in the way airlines recruit for the cockpit. Recreational fashions also move on.
Does it matter? Some fret that the falling number of private pilots is contributing to a shortage of professional pilots – a ticking timebomb that will lead to airlines having to rein back on expansion plans because they will not have crews to fly their shiny new aircraft.
In truth, the correlation is tenuous. Carriers will simply invest in other methods to fill right-hand seats – notably multi-crew pilot licence training, where raw recruits who have never held a joystick can be moulded into capable first officers.
But it is sad that 112 years after the Wrights, when the aviation industry has never been more buoyant, the simple, solitary pleasure of piloting a tiny aircraft into the great blue beyond seems to be losing its allure.
Source: Flight International
