Search

To assist with exploring strategies for effectively promoting vocational noncollegiate flight schools to diverse student markets of nontraditional student pilots, traditional student pilots, and teenage student pilots, this study compared and analyzed school choice factors of marketing approaches, relevant people, institutional features, and training program features that influenced these three groups of student pilots’ school selections. The study data was collected via a survey questionnaire, and the sample included 176 participants. There were 42 choice factor survey items, and the participants were guided to rate the level of influence of each factor on their school choice decisions. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA methods were utilized to analyze the collected data. According to the key findings, all three groups highlighted the following factors as most influential on their school choice: training quality, availability of flying opportunities, training costs, safety records of the programs, reputation of flight instructors, the overall reputation, length of time to complete the program, scheduling flexibility, training capacity, and administration integrity. While the typical discrepancies of the key findings among the three groups revealed that both traditional and teenage student pilots considered relevant people of family members as having the most influence. Nontraditional student pilots deemed institutional features of geographic proximity as a key factor. Teenage student pilots emphasized institutional features of career placement as relatively more influential. The ANOVA results showed that significant differences existed in the influence of relevant people of school’s flight instructors and of family members.

As the U.S. domestic commercial aviation activities have been recovering and will continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic over the next few years, a trend of the shortage in the regional airline pilot workforce is noted. Therefore, it is crucial to increase the reservoir of pilot candidates to sustain the industry’s pilot occupation rigor. To assist advance flight schools’ recruitment of new pilot candidates, this study examined how various marketing communication approaches influenced student pilots’ selections of flight schools. This study also further investigated how student pilots’ preferences in accessing school information differed in accordance with their different demographic profiles/market segments of residency status, types of school the participants attended, gender, annual incomes, ages, and education levels. The study sample included 201 student pilots who participated in an online survey which was conducted in 2019 examining their school choice experiences pertaining to vocational noncollegiate flight schools in California. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the survey data. The findings revealed that, in general, student pilots considered contact with school flight instructors, contact with staff, and word of mouth referrals as the three most influential marketing communication approaches in their decisions in choosing a flight school. Statistically significant differences in the perceived influence of marketing communication approaches on school selections among student pilots with different demographic profiles were mostly identified between domestic students versus international students and Part 61 school students versus Part 141 school students.

As international civil aviation activities resume from the COVID-19 pandemic, along with fleet growth and high retirement rates for senior pilots, there is a concern about the industry’s capability in supplying sufficient numbers of competent professional pilots. In order to advance the industry’s recruitment, it is necessary to determine effective approaches that may attract prospective student pilots to flight schools. This study investigated how school choice factors influenced U.S. domestic student pilots’ selections of vocational, non-collegiate flight schools in comparison to international student pilots. The study data were adopted from a 2019 survey research, which included 157 domestic and 44 international participants. The participants were invited to rate how much influence various choice factors, including marketing approaches, relevant people, and institutional factors, had on their school choice decision-making. Key findings regarding marketing approaches revealed that word of mouth and media-based marketing approaches were significantly more influential for international student pilots. Whereas domestic student pilots seemed to prefer personal communication-based marketing approaches. With respect to the influence of relevant people, this study found that certain school members (i.e., flight instructors, current trainees, executive committee, and sales personnel) had a significantly higher influence on international student pilots’ school choice decisions than for domestic student pilots. In regard to institutional factors, it was found that both groups included the following factors as the key influencers: training quality, availability of flying opportunities, training costs, safety record of the programs, the overall reputation, length of time to complete program, reputation of flight instructors, scheduling flexibility, and training capacity. Moreover, international student pilots endorsed that institutional factors pertaining to school campus lif