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General Aviation Profile

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

General Aviation Profile

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FINANCIAL1

  1960 1970 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Expenditures, total ($ millions) 895 2,035 8,053 9,907 9,332 10,379 11,605 13,797 16,372 17,553 R21,909 26,499
Aircraft 202 339 2,853 3,398 3,910 4,260 5,298 7,174 9,573 11,262 R14,291 18,524
Operating costs 693 1,696 5,200 6,509 5,422 6,119 6,307 6,623 6,799 6,291 R7,618 7,975

INVENTORY2

  1960 1970 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Number of active aircraft by primary use, total 76,549 131,743 211,045 196,800 172,400 188,100 187,200 192,359 204,712 219,464 217,533 211,446
Corporate N 6,835 14,860 10,100 9,400 9,800 9,300 10,411 11,250 10,804 11,003 10,544
Business N 26,900 49,391 33,100 26,500 26,200 28,200 27,716 32,611 24,543 25,169 25,525
Instructional N 10,727 14,862 18,600 15,000 14,800 14,300 14,663 11,375 16,081 14,883 14,254
Personal N 65,398 96,222 112,600 102,500 109,300 109,600 115,630 124,347 147,085 148,192 144,031
Aerial application N 5,455 7,294 6,200 4,300 5,100 5,400 4,858 4,550 4,254 4,294 3,779
Aerial observation N N N 4,900 5,100 4,700 3,200 3,311 3,242 3,240 5,093 5,039
External load N N N N 100 200 400 186 313 190 234 202
Other worka N 2,054 2,813 1,400 1,200 1,100 1,100 579 1,116 2,363 1,787 1,528
Air taxi / air toursb N N N 5,800 3,800 4,100 3,900 4,948 5,190 4,569 4,019 4,004
Sightseeingc N N N N 1,300 900 900 677 679 832 881 918
Otherd N 8,249 17,045 4,100 4,200 6,300 6,700 5,250 6,010 1,200 1,952 1,573
Public use N N N N N N 4,200 4,130 4,029 4,138 j N j N

PERFORMANCE

  1960 1970 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Number of flight hours by actual use, total3 (thousands) 13,121 26,030 36,430 30,763 24,092 25,667 26,100 27,713 28,100 R31,755 R30,972 29,134
Corporate N N 5,332 2,913 2,486 2,869 2,718 2,878 3,213 3,616 R3,765 3,411
Business 5,699 7,204 8,434 4,417 3,012 3,191 3,152 3,006 3,523 3,598 R3,604 3,583
Instructional 1,828 6,791 5,748 7,244 4,156 4,106 4,425 4,956 3,961 5,893 R5,375 5,074
Personal 3,172 6,896 8,894 9,276 8,248 9,320 8,893 9,644 9,781 11,294 R11,711 11,314
Aerial application N N 2,044 1,872 1,364 1,557 1,787 1,562 1,306 1,415 1,401 1,093
Aerial observation N N N 1,745 1,746 1,385 1,036 1,261 812 1,243 R1,621 1,596
External load N N N N 135 118 203 112 153 128 171 177
Other worka N N 1,053 572 241 268 262 139 286 613 R522 359
Air taxi / air toursb N N N 2,249 1,545 1,527 1,773 2,120 2,583 2,043 R1,918 1,681
Sightseeingc N N N N 309 206 186 127 169 220 198 201
Otherd 2,422 5,139 4,925 475 622 1,121 644 819 940 581 R686 645
Public usee N N N N N N 1,021 1,096 1,373 1,111 j N j N
Vehicle-miles (millions)f,4 1,769 3,207 5,204 4,548 3,358 3,795 3,524 3,877 U U U U
Passenger-miles (millions)f,1 2,300 9,100 14,700 13,000 9,800 10,800 12,000 12,500 13,100 R14,100 15,200 P 15,900
Fuel consumed, total (million gallons)f, 5 242 759 1,286 1,016 731 847 896 934 1,126 1,313 R1,335 1,258
Aviation gasoline 242 551 520 353 266 287 289 292 311 345 R337 319
Jet fuel N 208 766 663 464 560 608 642 815 967 R998 939

SAFETY

  1960 1970 1980 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Fatalities, totalg,6 787 1,310 1,239 767 730 735 636 631 624 619 593 565
Corporate N 28 66 21 6 15 20 3 0 30 13 12
Business N 148 126 80 64 73 44 45 42 55 43 50
Instructional N 93 73 62 47 44 40 38 38 38 64 40
Personal N 726 808 492 472 488 413 432 432 383 386 376
Aerial application N 41 32 17 17 15 10 17 6 14 19 14
Other N 174 134 95 138 112 119 106 112 105 87 73
Accidents, total7 4,793 4,712 3,590 2,241 2,022 2,056 1,908 1,845 1,904 1,906 R1,837 1,726
Fatal 429 641 618 443 403 413 361 350 364 340 R344 325
Accident rate (per 100,000 flight hours)h,i 36.5 18.1 9.9 7.3 8.4 8.0 7.3 6.7 6.8 6.0 5.9 5.9
Fatal 3.3 2.5 1.7 1.4 1.7 1.6 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.1 1.1 1.1

KEY: N = data do not exist; P = preliminary; R = revised; U = data are not available.

a In 1960, 1970, 1980, classified as "Industrial."

b Includes air tours done under 14 CFR 135: air taxi operators and commercial operators.

c Includes sightseeing done under 14 CFR 91: general operating and flight rules.

d Significant decrease in "Other" can be attributed to a redefining of the category to only include "Aerial Other" and "Medical Use."

e Federal, state or local government-owned or leased aircraft used for the purpose of fulfilling a government position.

f Includes air taxi operations. Nautical miles in source multiplied by 1.151 to convert from nautical miles.

g Sum of fatalities does not necessarily equal total. Differences are due to methodology used to count collisions involving aircraft in different categories.

h Suicide/sabotage cases are included in accidents and fatalities data but are excluded from accident rates.

i Accident rates are calculated by BTS using the formula: Accident Rates (per 100,000 flight hours) = Accidents or Fatalities/Flight Hours (thousands)*100.

j Beginning in 2000, "Public Use" was included in "Other Work".

NOTES

Numbers may not add to totals due to rounding.

Total fatalities in this profile may not match those in table 2-14, due to when the total fatalities data were received and the data breakdown by type of flying. NTSB constantly updates and reclassifies accident and fatality data.

1994-95 data for active aircraft by use, and flight hours, have been revised to reflect changes in adjustment for nonresponse bias with 1996 telephone survey factors. 1996 vehicle-miles and fuel consumption data are estimated using new information on nonrespondents and are not comparable to earlier years.

SOURCES

Unless otherwise noted, refer to chapter tables for sources.

1 Eno Transportation Foundation, Inc., Transportation in America, Annual Issues (Washington, DC), pp. 40 and 45, and similar tables in earlier editions.

2 U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, General Aviation and Air Taxi Activity and Avionics Survey
(Washington, DC: 1990-2001 issues), table 1.1.

3 Ibid., table 1.6 and similar tables in earlier editions.

4 Ibid., table 3.3 and similar tables in earlier editions.

5 1960-1990: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, General Aviation and Air Taxi Acitivity and Avionics Survey (Washington, DC: 1990-2000 issues), table 5.1. 1994-2001: Ibid., FAA Aerospace Forecasts, Fiscal Years 2003-2014 (Washington, DC: March 2003), table 32 and similar tables in earlier editions.

6 1960-1970: National Transportation Safety Board, RE-50, personal communication. 1980-2001: Ibid., Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data, U.S. General Aviation, Calendar Year 1998 (Washington, DC: July 2000), charts 27, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43, and personal communications on Sept. 10, 2002 and Dec. 22, 2003.

7 National Transportation Safety Board, RE-50, personal communication. Annual Review of Aircraft Accident Data, U.S. General Aviation, Calendar Year 1998 (Washington, DC: July 2000), available at Internet site http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/ as of May 9, 2003, table 10.