In 1970, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association was formed to foster and advance the general welfare, safety, interests, and activities of general aviation. GAMA has grown to become a premier advocate for general aviation manufacturers, their suppliers, and businesses that maintain, repair and overhaul general aviation aircraft around the world.
GAMA’s annual report has become the industry resource for GA data. Over the next several weeks, we’ll share factoids excerpted from the 50th anniversary report.
Congratulations to GAMA for 50 years of service, support and contributions to general aviation community.
In February 2020, PricewaterhouseCoopers released their report on GA contribution to the US Economy. The economic impact of the general aviation industry was measured in terms of employment, labor income, output, and value-added. 2018 was the most recent year for which full, consistent national and state level data was available.
GA directly employed 273,500 full and part-time workers. Including indirect, induced and enabled impacts GA supported 1.2 million jobs and $247 billion in output.
GA generated $77 billion in labor income and contributed $128 billion to US gross domestic product (GDP). At a national level, each direct job in GA supported 3.3 jobs elsewhere in the economy.
References: “Contribution of General Aviation to the US Economy in 2018,” PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, February 2020.
In 2018, total General Aviation flight hours were 25.5 million. PricewaterhouseCoopers divided GA flight hours into four categories: Personal, Business without a Paid Crew; Business with a Paid Professional Crew and Other.
Personal: Included operation of GA aircraft for personal and recreational reasons. The pilots of personal-use aircraft are typically the owner and PWC assumed that owners tie-down their aircraft rather than rent hangar space (which under estimates the economic impact of personal-use GA aircraft because many owners rent hangar space). About 7.7 million or 30% of GA flight hours were for personal flight.
Business without Paid Crew: Typically flown by the owner of the aircraft who is not paid for flight operations. It’s assumed that owners rent space in a shared hangar and pay business insurance rates on the aircraft.
Business with Paid Professional Crew: Owners of such aircraft are assumed by PWC to rent a hangar, pay a lower business insurance rate, and hire professional pilot and flight crew. Air taxi and air medical services are assumed to have this cost profile. About 31% or 7.8 million GA hours were for business purposes. Business-use with a paid crew accounts for the majority (79%) of turboprop and jet-powered airplane hours.
Other: Included flight instruction, aerial applications in agriculture and other industries, aerial observation, and sight-seeing. It’s assumed “other-use” aircraft operate with a paid pilot but no paid crew. This large grouping included about 10 million hours or 39% of all GA flight hours. And, represented the majority (61%) of flight hours for rotorcraft.
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, “Contributions of General Aviation to the US Economy in 2018,” PWC, Published 2020, page 6.
Table 1: GA Hours by Aircraft Type and Reason in 2018
Personal
Bus. w/o Paid Crew
Bus. w/ Paid Crew
Other
Hours
Piston Airplanes
5,790
1,103
551
6,342
13,786
Turboprop
219
192
1,176
1,149
2,736
Jet-Powered
459
230
3,582
321
4,592
Helicopters
88
29
847
1,929
2,922
Experimental
1,071
67
13
187
1,339
Other
77
29
1
54
131
Total
7,704
1,649
6,171
9,982
25,506
PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged by the general aviation industry trade associations to help quantify the contribution of GA to the United States economy. PWC defined General Aviation as the manufacture and operation of any type of aircraft issued an airworthiness certificate by the FAA, excluding military operations and scheduled commercial airlines.
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In 2018, total General Aviation flight hours were 25.5 million (25,500,000). Piston-engine flight hours were over 15 million hours or 59% of the total GA flight hours.
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, “Contributions of General Aviation to the US Economy in 2018,” PWC, Published 2020, page 6.
PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged by the general aviation industry trade associations to help quantify the contribution of GA to the United States economy. PWC defined General Aviation as the manufacture and operation of any type of aircraft issued an airworthiness certificate by the FAA, excluding military operations and scheduled commercial airlines.
Table 1. Hours by Aircraft Type
Description
Hours
Percent
Single-Engine Piston
12,092,000
47%
Twin-Engine Piston
1,694,000
7%
Turboprop
2,736,000
11%
Jet-Powered
4,592,000
18%
Helicopters
2,922,000
11%
Experimental
1,339,000
5%
Other
131,000
1%
Total
25,506,000
100%
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Over the next several weeks, we’ll blog a few factoids from the PricewaterhouseCoopers General Aviation report that was released in early 2020. Let’s start with, how many GA aircraft are there in the US? Answer: In 2018, the total GA fleet size was 211,743 aircraft. More than 173,000 had piston engine propulsion which represented 82% of the GA fleet.
TABLE 1. US General Aviation Fleet Size by Type Aircraft, 2018
Single-Engine Piston
130,180
61%
Twin-Engine Piston
12,860
6%
Turboprop
9,924
5%
Jet-Powered
14,595
7%
Helicopters
9,988
5%
Experimental
30,084
14%
Other
4,112
2%
Total
211,743
100%
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, “Contributions of General Aviation to the US Economy in 2018,” PWC, Published 2020, page 6.
PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged by the general aviation industry trade associations to help quantify the contribution of GA to the United States economy. PWC defined General Aviation as the manufacture and operation of any type of aircraft issued an airworthiness certificate by the FAA, excluding military operations and scheduled commercial airlines.
Copyright 2020 wikiWings LLC, All rights reserved Connecting Aviators® and related marks and logos are property of wikiWings®
In 2019, Cirrus Aircraft delivered 375 piston-engine planes. Cirrus by design, has successfully resegmented the piston-engine market and has distinguished their planes from the competition.
The Cirrus SR series wins 2:1 over Piper Archer and Arrow, about 2:1 over Cessna Skyhawk, Skylane & Stationair, 3:1 over Diamond DA40 and 47:1 over Bonanza G36 deliveries. A summarization of the annual GAMA report shows Cirrus won 41% of the traditional “four-seat” (4-adult) piston airplane customer shipments. See “Who is the GA Market Share Leader 2019“
The Cirrus “SR-series of high-performance piston airplanes are the best-selling aircraft in the world for [17] consecutive years – with over 7,800 aircraft operating in over 60 countries.”
References: General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Annual Shipment Report 2019. Cirrus Aircraft marketing website.
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Cirrus Design Corp. dba Cirrus Aircraft has been manufacturing planes since 1999. On December 31, 2019 total customer shipments stood at 7,814. Details by the numbers are in the table below:
Table 1: Cirrus Aircraft Shipments by Year
Year
SF50 Jet
SR22 Turbo
SR22
SR20
SRV
Total
2019
81
200
131
53
0
465
2018
63
180
135
65
0
443
2017
22
174
135
46
0
377
2016
3
149
133
35
0
320
2015
0
142
128
31
0
301
2014
0
160
117
31
0
308
2013
0
132
112
32
0
276
2012
0
88
81
84
0
253
2011
0
102
105
48
0
255
2010
0
107
115
42
0
264
2009
0
150
88
28
0
266
2008
0
250
177
115
7
549
2007
0
300
288
112
10
710
2006
0
30
535
150
6
721
2005
0
0
475
116
9
600
2004
0
0
459
91
3
553
2003
0
0
355
112
2
469
2002
0
0
292
105
0
397
2001
0
0
124
59
0
183
2000
0
0
0
95
0
95
1999
0
0
0
9
0
9
Total
169
2,164
3,985
1,459
37
7,814
References: GAMA Annual Reports and Cirrus Aircraft statistics for factory installed STC Tornado Alley TurboNormalized (TAT) shipments, per Matt Bergwall, not identified in GAMA statistics. From 2006 – 2010, the FAA Registration for Cirrus planes with TAT systems is “SR22.”
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The desire for turbocharged power has carried Cirrus Aircraft over another milestone – Cirrus has more turbo deliveries than all other aircraft manufacturers combined (since 2007). In 2019, Cirrus sold 200 SR22T Turbo planes and surpassed 2,134 turbo deliveries.
Currently, there are only four companies manufacturing competing piston single-engine turbos. The Cirrus SR22T Turbo outsells the Piper M350 about 10:1, Cessna Turbo Stationair ~5:1, Mooney Acclaim ~29:1.
Cirrus SR22T Turbo climbs like a beast and is designed to run cooler than predecessor turbos. It’s the best selling turbo piston airplane by more than a mile.
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association published their annual report in February. Here’s a summary of GA single-engine piston shipments by manufacturer. Cirrus Aircraft is once again the leader in their category.
