GA med problemer etter at lovverket ble strengere - USA

Small aviation businesses say pilot shortage could drive industry into the ground

In the past several decades, the number of private and recreational pilots across the country has plummeted, as has the number of small aircraft being manufactured - trends that some say have been accelerated by increasingly strict federal regulations.

If the decline continues, it will spell trouble for entrepreneurs such as Austin Heffernan, who runs an aircraft maintenance and repair company in Hagerstown, Md. He was one of several small-business owners asked to testify last week during a congressional hearing on the state of the general aviation industry.

"We see many more pilots leaving general aviation than we see new pilots getting started," Heffernan told the House Small Business Committee, later adding that those pilots "are the main market for many of the on-airport small businesses that make up the general aviation industry."