The flight training industry knows that the training system has been putting out as much training and testing as humanly possible. Some might question if we are doing too much at the expense of safety for the result of numerical certification accomplishment increases to fill pilot shortages.
A pain point for many in the training industry has been sourcing practical tests from FAA Designated Pilot Examiners. Backlogs have been reported in most locations and they don’t seem to be clearing.
There are lots of things that play into this condition, but there can be no doubt that the amount of pilot training taking place is a major factor in that condition. And the number of pilot certification events that were accomplished in 2022 are higher than any other years in the past decade. Perhaps a record number ever?
Nearly Double the Certification Events Compared to a Decade Ago
The table here shows how many original and additional airman certificates were approved or disapproved by FAA Designated Pilot Examiners in each year, going back to 2011. Each of these events, approval or disapproval, correlates with a “checkride” a DPE conducted. We can see that in 2022 we did nearly double the number of tests that we were doing a decade ago.
Even when we compare how many tests were issued during 2021, and 2020, we see significant increases in the number of certification events! A dip during 2020 and 2020 as the country felt the effects of COVID likely only were a speed bump in the climbing rates of certification that were taking place already in 2028 and 2019 as highly active airline hiring was ramping up only to be paused.
When economies opened back up and began to again grow, airline hiring again ramped up and the pull for new pilots seems to be driving pilot training to new levels unseen recently. Perhaps ever? I honestly don’t know. I haven’t looked at data far back enough to if we ever hit airman certification levels this high in the past. But I do know that our training system is running at 110% reactor power right now.
You can see the graphical trend of this in the chart below. We keep just going up with that little burble in 2020 and 2021. Even that burble though shows that the training industry at high levels even while many other sectors in the economy were slowed or shut down.
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ATP pass rates have historically been pretty consistent, and pretty high compared to other certificate issuances. I think we all kind of expect that. We certainly hope that by the time someone is pursuing an ATP certificate their dedication to higher-level performance is increased and that the training they receive will set them up for passing test events.
