GA activity and its decline

Haphazard search for another item lead to this:

Not sure if the situation in Switzerland is representative of the whole of EU, but going from ca 4070 registered aircraft in the mid nineties to ca 3110 in 2023 is quite a drop.
Guess one of the reasons is a very late tolerance to selected ULs, so those haven’t replaced the disappearing fleet, as they do in France, Italy, et al.

Yeah, it would be nice to see longer data period and data from other countries. (To see whether 87-96 rise was CH-specific or a general).

The choice of visualisation is a bit misleading – putting 3000 as a base visually magnifies the changes, while in fact they are much less pronounced as a percentage of the total.

Guess one of the reasons is a very late tolerance to selected ULs, so those haven’t replaced the disappearing fleet, as they do in France, Italy, et al.

Guess the main reason is the increasing hostility towards GA and the hassle with slots, outpricing and general loss of utility of having an airplane.

I am less and less interested in travel for that matter (also by airline) and am thinking seriously to retire both from GA and from travelling altogether. There is no more joy or fun in it, only cost and hassle.

Mooney_Driver wrote:

There is no more joy or fun in it, only cost and hassle.

Travelling in general has never been cheaper and easier, although CAT became a bit more expensive in last few years during these consecutive crisis. Flying GA aircraft has never been easier in terms of resources available for planning and executing the flight although cost has been increased (mainly due to fuel taxation policy). In Europe Schengen area massively reduces the complications of cross-state flying. However, big airports have never been more complicated but that’s mainly because of cheap CAT and we return to my first sentence.

Peter wrote:

What drove the rise 1987-1996? What happened in CH during those years, e.g. socially?

They became rich and decided to spend some money rather than to save it.

Emir wrote:

Flying GA aircraft has never been easier in terms of resources available for planning and executing the flight although cost has been increased (mainly due to fuel taxation policy).

True. But that is not the problem.

Emir wrote:

However, big airports have never been more complicated but that’s mainly because of cheap CAT and we return to my first sentence.

It is no longer just the “big” airports. It’s just about everywhere worth visiting where outpricing, slottery and parking bans/high costs are smashing the utility of GA.

Clearly there are other examples, particularly in Germany, where places like Memmingen or Friedrichshafen still are quite good for GA. (Also very nice to fly from in CAT btw) but for me, most of the desirable locations today are no longer available due to outpricing and handling mafia.

Peter wrote:

What drove the rise 1987-1996? What happened in CH during those years, e.g. socially?

I remember those years very fondly. I started working at ZRH airport in 1986. It was a very happy time. Flying was dead easy, nothing of todays harassments in place. You could fly in and out of ZRH and other big airports without any restrictions, despite a lot of traffic. I recall the scene of pilots and owners as being optimistic, positive, generally happy folks who had loads of ideas. The FOCA of the time was in a big “can do” mood, triggered by the development of Crossair and things like approaches to Sion and Lugano which were developed at the time. When I wanted to certify my Cessna 150 IFR, they helped and it was a super experience. When I transitioned to the Seneca and did my CPL/IR in those years, the world was our yonder. We could fly to French airports as we wished, do night training, we could do IFR training wherever we wanted as well. Customs and Immigration were there all the time during operating hours at my hombases of LSZR/LSZH and LSZB (training) so going abroad was a non-event. I flew my Cessna 150 IFR and VFR to places like Frankfurt (EDDF, 5 DM landing fee!) Geneva, Lyon, Grenoble St.Geoirs, Gerona, heaven knows where not, never ever any hassle, never ever any PPR. Just get on the airplane, file a flight plan for cross border and go.

Economically in aviation, we had Swissair, we had Balair, CTA and later Aerojet, then TEA Switzerland came along. We had Classic Air with their two superb DC3’s doing charter chains. The Junkers 52’s of the army air force were transitioned into a very successful joyflight civil aviation assoication. Working in aviation then was just superb. Working at ZRH with gems like the Spantax Coronados, DC8’s, Caravelles, Pan Am 747 and 727’s for the Berlin routes, Trans America, Hispania, Brittannia’s 737’s, B-Tours 737’s and Tristars during winter, DanAir and British Island BAC 111, Heavylift’s Short Belfast, the first AN124 to visit, Flightline and Debonair with their 146’s, one of them be registrated G-OZRH showing it’s purpose (Go ZRH) for Falcon travel. The list is endless. Working there, having access to all those airplanes to this aviator was like a dog living in a butchers shop. Not to speak of the social life that environment brought with it, totally impossible in today’s woke environment where you need to take a lawyer to each date. Friendships from this time have lasted until today.

Not that it was all easy for the lazy: I recall working 72 hours non-stop with small kips under the desk during the Yugoslavia crisis when ZRH was swamped with over 50’000 passengers and we flew them on anything that had wings. Stressfull yes, but experiences I will never forget. JAT’s DC10 and 727’s, Aviogenex’s 134’s and 737’s, Inex Adria, flocked the airport day and night to sort that mess out. Nobody recorded or wanted to record overtime then, we WANTED to be there. Thankfully nobody realized people might have paid to get to do those jobs. That only came later with pay to fly schemes….

Buying airplanes then was easy, not cheap, but it was a much less tainted business than today, where owning an airplane is seen as climate heresy by some. I bought my first airplane for CHF 7000.- in 1983. My first car cost me 9000.- My salary then was about 4000 CHF with which I could live very nicely indeed. My flat cost 500.- per month (today the same flat, single room with separate kitchen and bathroom, will cost around 1500.-). When we rented our first marital flat, it cost 1300.- per month for a great 3 room, including 2 garage spaces. Today, those flats are in the 2500’s per month, if you can find one.

Flying was easy, CAT was expensive so people went on charters, but I still recall going places. Miami on Rich Intl’s DC8, Chicago with Independent Air and KLM, LAX with BA, Washington on OS’s A310’s and later Swissair’s A330’s, often at a moments notice. When I joined Swissair in 1998, I used stafftravel a lot and it was wonderful. In those days my wife and I went to far out places like the Mariana Islands, Svalbard, Maldives once a year at least, just hop on and go. Prices were affordable then, not like today.

GA flying was at it’s very best then. I loved it. Flying a Seneca I to Nice (no PPR, no parking slot, H24 Customs), going to party in Cannes and back the next day, easy peasy. No pre-advice, no intro-flights, no online-exams, no Handling, just go.

Clearly, today we have more sophisticated planning and other stuff (even though if you wanted it and knew where, you could have it then. I wrote my first flight planner on the Sinclair Spectrum with a metal sheet printer both of which fit neatly into my flight bag. Sitting in Avignon after having downloaded the weather from Minitel and typing in the flight plan gave me a nice working PLOG with accurate winds even then. Yes, it is nicer to download the new charts, but by updating your Jeppesen or Botlang manually, you actually saw what changed while you did the updates.

I know, the past is always rosier looking backwards, but heavens if I would not trade the Internet, smartphones and all it’s tosh to be able to do these things again. Compuserve was way enough for me to get my information and to exchange opinions with people like John Deakin, Randy Sohn, Bruce Artwick and many more in their fora.

In short: Those years were great to be alive. There was optimism, the economy boomed, people had possibilities and used them. Hence they took up flying, when being a pilot was still something people looked up to and would gladly come fly with you. Hence they built their homes, many of which today get demolished for high rise blocks and ghettoes.

Today in this spoilt, poisoned and overcrowded society, we can hardly imagine the joy of life we had then. Yes, I would go back there today.