Some flight schools have gone out of business since September 11 though the actual number is elusive. A National Air Transportation Association spokesman said a member survey taken two weeks after the terrorist attacks yielded shocking results. NATA’s membership conservatively lost between $300 million and $500 million during the period when all flight instruction and VFR flying were banned. “One member estimates his company’s losses at $50 million,” he told AIN.
“Before September 11, our flight instruction program averaged between $6,000 and $10,000 a day,” Phil Poynor, vice president and general manager of Farmingdale,
N.Y.-based Nassau Flyers, said. “Afterwards we dropped below $100 a day until the resumption of operations on October 13.” He explained that the $1.6 million annual operation historically makes its money from April through October. “Losing September and October was devastating,” he said. “If flight schools go out of business it’ll be because our own government won’t sit down and talk to us. Driving a bunch of legitimate businesses bankrupt isn’t going to help stop terrorism.”
