By Kathryn B. Creedy
Part I: Overhauling Aviation Training For Better Results
The World Airline Training Summit offered up a sea change in aviation training – one that openly called for complete overhaul to produce better, more competent aviation personnel — pilots, aviation maintenance technicians and cabin crew — but instill in them a leadership that makes a difference in culture. Proposals streamline processes both in schools and at regulators for greater efficiency and safety.
“It’s a pretty awesome time in the training industry,” FAA’s Manager Training and Certification Group General Aviation & Commercial Everette Rochon, told WATS 2025 attendees. “The world is dedicating the smartest minds to modernize training. It’s exciting to see FAA embracing change. About 20-30% of flight training is done under 141. What I’m asking is how can we use technology and AI solutions to do more with less. It is about breaking down barriers from management that says we don’t have the resources.”
The idea is to keep training costs at least neutral with the advent of expensive high-tech solutions, since airlines and regulators are loath to increase what they view as a cost center not an investment in safety. This a welcome change since previous changes to pilot training and requirements, were successfully designed to impose higher costs on regionals to close the cost gap with major airlines since unions erroneously contended regional pilots took mainline jobs post deregulation.
We are now at a point where many regional routes, according to Boyd International Group, would be better served by 737s, E190s and A220s than with E175s. Boyd International argues this is driving the abandonment of many points that would be better served by regional aircraft currently deployed elsewhere. Delta has already started switching out mainline for regional aircraft.
The movement is prompted by growing concerns among pilots and aviation training experts that personnel quality and safety are being compromised. In this year’s aviation safety report, Flight Safety Foundation warned against complacency.
“Aviation’s safety net is fraying at the edges,” said Foundation President and CEO Dr. Hassan Shahidi, echoing Captain Philip Adrian CEO at Multi Pilot Simulations (MPS) and the chair of the European Aircrew Training Policy Group (ATPG). Adrian, the Aircraft Manufacturers Training Association and others called for a complete overhaul in aviation training during this year’s WATS 2025. “It’s time for the entire industry to double down on compliance, discipline, and proactive risk management to restore public confidence and protect lives. We cannot allow complacency to creep into operations. Safety standards have evolved for a reason, and adherence to them isn’t optional — it’s essential. Compliance alone does not guarantee safety, but without it, safety cannot be achieved.”
FAA/Flight School Relationship
NFTA Vice President Government Affairs Jeff Wolf provided a vision of what future school/FAA interactions could be. The goal, said Wolf, is to identify the regulatory barriers and inefficiencies in certification preventing part 61 pilot schools from applying for 141. Modernization would also explore how part 141 schools can maximize future training demands and reveal why so few 141 schools have examining authority. Industry and regulators are examining whether such authority could be part of the initial school certification as well as its certification for continued operation, something the University Aviation Association has been pushing for some time.
The same is true for alleviating the burden on Flight Standards District Offices (FSDOs). Noting how resource intensive school oversight is, NFTA is calling for less reliance on auditing paper records in favor of the digitization, explained Wolf. It would also use AI to capture negative safety trends and identify problem schools.
“FSDOs will gain efficiency to do more with less through technology integration,” he said. “Standardization is the key to such efficiency since every school is now treated differently. That way FSDOs can focus attention where it needs to be – on the outliers. A dedicated communications portal offers a centralized digital platform enabling streamlined interactions between flight schools and FAA. We need to streamline 141 applications and certification, and we are developing a tool kit for that.”
Rochon agreed. “The objective is to provide the safest training environment in the world using structured courses and advanced training delivery to produce better pilots,” he explained. “Better aeronautical decision making reduces the GA fatal accident rates and fosters the gathering and sharing of data within the flight training industry. It also involves incorporating innovation and technology including both aircraft and learning tech. Training would include Competency-Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) and the use both virtual and mixed reality simulation. It would also encourage innovation with an efficient and effective regulatory structure including working with ICAO requirements for incorporating quality assurance.”
But NFTA and FAA may be thinking too small since international aviation training experts view the valuable technology and CBTA used in flight schools would have an equal impact on other training organizations such as aviation maintenance schools as well as the Aviation Technical Education Council, Aeronautical Repair Station Association and Aircraft Electronics Association. One speaker at WATS 2025 even called for aviation maintenance simulators. Enlarging the effort to streamline the process of all aviation training organizations would vastly improve safety, oversight and the efficiency of aviation rulemaking changes since they are all adopting the same technologies to modernize training.
Holly Woodruff Lyons, president of HWL Aerospace Policy, noted the lack of simulator time in training along with the failure of gaining such authority in the last FAA reauthorization, despite wide-spread agreement simulators are a major safety tool.
“Limitations on sim time are part of the regulation but there is no law preventing FAA from changing regulation,” she noted. “This is a totally different avenue to pursue rather than waiting for a new reauthorization. It’s an opportunity to go to the FAA and convince them we need to look at the regulation. Sim manufacturers are prepared but the cost will be passed on to the student. However, there are grants to offset the cost of acquiring simulators with flight schools moving in that direction.”
Sim time is controversial with pilot unions, but training experts disagree. Incorporating advanced training techniques into general aviation training is critical added Joe Scolia, vice president of Sierra Charlie Aviation. Industry leaders have advocated this for years. NFTA Vice President Laura Benson Jones, who is also founder of Flight Club 502, agreed saying good pilot training and quality are based on what happens at the foundational level. She also advocated for giving trainees simulator time before aircraft flight training even as she noted union contentions that you can’t learn anything except in the aircraft.
“Simulators are only four to five percent of training,” said Collins. “Sims allows us to achieve procedures and competency without having to go to the airplane. But we must get understanding from regulators this is what we need to build better pilots.”
The FAA/NFTA Modernization effort is the subject of public hybrid meetings to hammer out recommendations for overhauling current training rules as well as established flight instructor standardization and objective assessments.
The Promise of Technology
Speakers heavily stressed technology – AI and extended reality – in not just shortening training but to producing more competent aviation personnel. The promise opens a brave new world with world aviation training leaders speaking at WATS 2025 indicating Competency-Based Training and Assessment has moved beyond the flight deck to training for cabin crews and aviation maintenance technicians.
But, with the support of the Aircraft Manufacturer Flight Training Association (AMFTA) and European Aircrew Training Policy Group (ATPG), both promoting CBTA, the National Flight Training Alliance and the FAA may have a fighting chance to effect change.
Meta’s Director of North America Commercial Sales, Reality Lab, Ade Ajayi said immersive training provides better results. “Studies show 40% of users view VR training as giving them more confidence,” he reported. “The immersive experience leads to higher levels of knowledge retention especially for training modules that are inherently dangerous. Extended reality results in a 52% cost reduction; 59% faster completion; 36% better engagement; and 40% better retention.”
Those results are especially true for Gen Z and Alpha who expect AI and XR in their training since this is how they group up.
VR/AR Association COO John Cunningham agreed with Ajayi. “Immersive tech is so powerful because humans tend to remember what we say or do and immersive tech is the closest to reality,” he reported. “What people don’t realize is how embedded VR training already is across industry while aviation companies represents 3% of the entire enterprise XR market. Extended reality will have a 30% CAGR which makes it one of the fastest growth areas in aviation.”
Using technology will also improve training as data informs a complete picture of what is happening in minute detail during training, said Dre Fournier, vice president of business development for HTX Labs. “It helps us understand why the individual is hesitating and, with hand or eye tracking, we really start to put together a picture on that individual to tailor training to them. Without that the likelihood of failure is higher, proficiency is slower and there are higher error rates.”
Overhauling training also requires getting the insurance industry, now married to outdated training and regulations, on board.
Pilot Supply
Changing training to provide higher quality pilots and other aviation personnel also addresses acute workforce shortages because training is not only faster but better. In fact, the US Air Force, in 2017, changed its training to produce better pilots in a shorter time so we know it can and is being done for highly sophisticated military aircraft. We should not question its use in the civil arena.
“It leads to better qualified candidates which has a huge impact on safety,” Scolia told delegates. “Absolutely safety starts on day one. If you have a poor foundation that carries all the way through the career.”
There is no question rising concerns about training quality are valid nor is the need for changes. Consequently, the value of tech, coupled with the overhaul of aviation training for all aviation personnel, is not in doubt. The world is speaking with one voice on the troubling condition of current training and the need for reform. At WATS 2024, it was still a promise but at WATS 2025 it was clear the political will to make changes as well as the maturity of new technology reveals or real results to enable regulators seeking modernization of century-old practices to get something done…in the name of safety.
