Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Flight School Revenue Benchmark
A flight school trains pilots, from a first discovery flight through private, instrument and commercial certificates, charging for aircraft time, instructor time, simulators and ground courses. Aircraft, fuel, maintenance, weather and the supply of instructors who often leave for airline jobs make it a capital-heavy and cyclical business.
Average Flight School Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every flight training school with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of schools gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$3,437,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
1,201
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $4.1 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $4.1 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 1,201 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $3,437,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Flight Training, NAICS 611512. The category covers flight training schools teaching people to fly aircraft, from private pilot lessons to commercial and instrument ratings. Aviation maintenance schools are counted with technical and trade schools. Classified separately in group 6115: 611511 Cosmetology and barber schools; 611513 Apprenticeship Training; 611519 Other Technical and Trade Schools. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Employer Establishments at Year Five Smaller cohort
Technical and Trade Schools, NAICS 6115, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
63.5%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 57.2 to 63.5 percent. This benchmark covers Technical and Trade Schools, NAICS 6115, as a whole, and this category accounts for 1,201 of the 8,347 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈33% |
Payroll share of receipts, Flight Training, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 33.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a substantial share covering flight instructors, dispatchers, mechanics and ground staff, though aircraft and fuel take a large part of what remains.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes aircraft ownership or leasing, fuel, maintenance, insurance and airport fees, which dominate the cost of a flight hour.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 21.2 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.21 |
Scale and ownership, Flight Training, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 21.2 people, and the industry counted 1.2 employer establishments per firm. A school of that size runs several aircraft with a roster of instructors, maintenance and dispatch staff, and the establishments per firm figure shows that most schools are single-location businesses, with some academies operating more than one base.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
Explore More on BusinessNES
Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.
Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Flight School: what a revenue average cannot show about a business measured in aircraft hours.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- Who owns the aircraft? Schools may own their fleet, lease it from investors or operate aircraft placed on leaseback by private owners, and each model changes capital needs, maintenance responsibility and the share of hourly revenue the school keeps.
- How are instructor careers shaping the labor pool? Many instructors build hours toward airline jobs and leave once they qualify, so turnover is structural rather than a sign of trouble. Training and retaining instructors is a constant cost that the payroll share does not fully express.
- Airline pathway or recreational pilots? Academies training career pilots in structured programs sell large packages and depend on airline hiring cycles, while local schools teaching private pilots depend on discretionary spending. Both appear here, with very different revenue per student.
- How much does weather cost? Flights canceled for weather produce no revenue while aircraft payments, hangar rent and staff continue, and the number of flyable days varies enormously by region and season. Utilization per aircraft is the central measure the average hides.
- Which costs move with fuel and insurance? Aviation fuel and hull insurance are large, volatile costs that can change the economics of a flight hour within a year, and pricing to students adjusts more slowly. A single census year cannot show that pressure.
- Does the school also run charter or maintenance? Many schools add aircraft rental, charter, maintenance for outside owners or fuel sales at the airport, and the census counts those receipts if they belong to the same establishment. The revenue mix behind this figure is broader than training alone.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each school with paid staff at a physical base. An independent instructor working alone is not counted, and aviation maintenance schools are counted with technical and trade schools.