According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there are more than 4,400 public-use general aviation airports that can be directly accessed by general aviation. Including private-use facilities, the national network encompasses more than 19,500 landing facilities, compared with 549 airports served by scheduled commercial airlines, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This reach makes general aviation a uniquely important part of the nation’s transportation system.
These airports and general aviation are often the only practical option for fast, reliable, and flexible air transportation to small and rural communities in every corner of the country. They support jobs, serve as a lifeline for small and mid-sized businesses, and provide critical services to remote cities and towns during natural disasters and other crises.
More than 214,000 active general aviation aircraft, from single-engine piston airplanes to business jets and helicopters, logged 28.6 million flight hours in 2023, and an estimated 120 million passenger journeys were made aboard general aviation flights that year, according to PwC.
In February 2025, PwC released a comprehensive study, Contribution of General Aviation to the US Economy in 2023, which concluded that general aviation supported a total of 1,330,200 jobs across the United States in 2023, including direct, indirect, induced, and enabled effects. At the national level, each direct job in the general aviation industry supported an additional 2.6 jobs elsewhere in the economy, and direct general aviation jobs carried average labor income of more than $104,000.
That same study found that general aviation generated $107.5 billion in labor income, produced $339.2 billion in output, and contributed $178.1 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product. Visitors arriving on general aviation flights spent an additional $6.7 billion at their destinations in 2023, including $2.2 billion on meals and $4.4 billion on lodging.
The scale of the industry is also reflected in nearly 4,000 FAA-certificated repair stations, more than 700 FAA-approved pilot training locations, and more than 3,400 fixed-base operators serving communities across the 50 states. According to the FAA’s 2025 U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics, more than 340,000 people hold FAA mechanic certificates.
Nearly 4,000 new American-manufactured general aviation aircraft were shipped in 2023, with total sales of $12.9 billion, and American manufacturers sold approximately $37 billion in general aviation aircraft components for new and existing aircraft. PwC estimates that US exports of general aviation aircraft and parts were approximately $23 billion in 2023, part of a $58.5 billion trade surplus for the broader US civil aviation manufacturing industry.
General aviation draws from a large and growing national pilot community. According to the FAA’s 2025 U.S. Civil Airmen Statistics, the United States has 887,519 active pilots. The pilot population has grown by nearly 196,000 since 2020, and in 2025 the number of women pilots surpassed 100,000 for the first time.
Much of that growth is coming from the training pipeline: the FAA counted 370,286 active student pilots in 2025, up from 222,629 in 2020. Student pilots are included in the 887,519 total above. According to the University Aviation Association’s 2026 Collegiate Aviation Guide, 269 collegiate aviation programs across the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are preparing the next generation of pilots, aviation maintenance technicians, and other aviation professionals.
According to a 2018 survey conducted by The Harris Poll for the National Business Aviation Association and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, most companies using business aviation were small or midsized companies: 57 percent employ 500 or fewer workers, and 62 percent operate just one aircraft. Pilots surveyed reported that, on average, 43 percent of their destinations were airports with infrequent or no scheduled airline service, and nearly a third of their flights in the past year were to destinations that have never had commercial air service. Roughly 40 percent of these trips involved stops at more than one destination. Passengers on business aircraft spent nearly two-thirds of their time aloft engaged in work, compared with 42 percent of their time when the same passengers flew commercially.
According to the same 2018 survey, 38 percent of business aircraft pilots reported flying humanitarian missions in the past year, averaging three such missions per pilot.
General aviation aircraft support law-enforcement agencies across the country, assisting with search and rescue, surveillance, locating missing persons, disaster response, and other public-safety missions.
According to the National Agricultural Aviation Association, there are approximately 1,560 aerial application businesses that use general aviation to support their farms and local communities, with aerial applications conducted in all 50 states.
A 2017 national analysis in the academic journal Injury estimated that nearly 30 million Americans lacked access to a Level I or II trauma center within 60 minutes, with rural residents and other populations facing geographic barriers to care experiencing the greatest disparities. Air medical services help bridge that distance: according to the Association of Air Medical Services, fixed-wing aircraft transport approximately 150,000 patients annually over long distances, while medical helicopters transport approximately 400,000 patients each year.
The Air Medical Operators Association reports that its 20 member operators employ approximately 5,000 pilots, 600 physicians, 5,500 nurses, and 5,500 paramedics, and operate more than 1,200 aircraft.
General aviation is also evolving as new aircraft, propulsion systems, and fuels move toward broader commercial use. Electric and hybrid-electric aircraft could lower operating costs and expand opportunities for short-distance transportation and flight training, while hydrogen-powered aircraft are being developed as another potential pathway for reducing aviation emissions. Sustainable aviation fuel can be used in existing turbine aircraft and infrastructure while reducing lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, creating opportunities for both aviation and domestic fuel production.
Advanced air mobility and uncrewed aircraft systems are expanding the range of missions aviation can perform. New aircraft designs could support regional passenger transportation, cargo delivery, emergency response, infrastructure inspection, agriculture, and other public and commercial uses. States are increasingly planning for these technologies through airport infrastructure investments, charging and fueling strategies, test programs, and new approaches to integrating emerging aircraft into existing aviation systems.
The scale and character of general aviation vary across the country, but every state relies on a combination of airports, aircraft, aviation businesses, trained professionals, and public-service operators. The state pages present the best available measures of that contribution, along with the programs and activities through which aviation supports local economies and communities.