Redbird Releases 2025 Survey on Aviation Training

At this year’s Redbird Migration Flight Training Conference, Redbird released its fifth annual State of Flight Training Survey. The report includes findings and analysis of the flight training industry based on input from some 1,400 flight training organization owners and managers, flight instructors, designated pilot examiners, active and prospective students, and certificated pilots.

In addition, the survey addresses “emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of flight training,” according to Redbird. Data from the survey indicate a stabilization of flight training costs and completion time, following steady cost increases of an average of 16% annually from 2020 to 2023. Median costs for a private pilot certificate held steady at around $14,000, with time to complete the process averaging approximately six months. Instrument training costs increased some 6% to $12,750 and the cost of a commercial rating decreased 3% to $28,000. That breaks a trend of year-over-year increases averaging 26% for the 2020-2023 time frame.

The survey also shows that larger flight training providers are “trending” upward economically while medium-size flight schools improved their business outlook “slightly” compared to smaller training providers and independent instructors’ business prospects.

Not surprisingly, Redbird addressed prospects for flight simulation as part of the training landscape and found that 87% of flight students intend to use flight simulation as part of their training in 2025. Attitudes toward integrating flight simulation into the training process have shown increasing favor each of the five years Redbird has conducted the annual survey.

Challenges include issues with pilot examiner availability, increasing aircraft insurance and maintenance costs, and economic uncertainty. Decreasing availability of training aircraft has led to 63% of independent flight instructors reporting they are using customer aircraft in the training process.

Redbird’s v-p of customer experience Josh Harnagel said, “Our goal with this report was to capture the evolving flight training landscape and provide valuable insights to help flight training professionals make informed decisions about their businesses, from the customer experience they provide to the instructional approaches they employ to prepare students for a practical test.”