The international general aviation community is reopening a survey to operators to gather more complete data on general aviation aircraft and operations in Europe. Releasing the initial survey results today during the opening day of Aero Friedrichshafen, Kyle Martin, director of European regulatory affairs at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and Michael Erb, senior v-p of the International Council of Aircraft Owners and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) Europe, stressed the importance of gathering data to establish a baseline for safety regulation. “We don’t know how many aircraft are airworthy and flying in Europe,” Martin said, noting that EASA comprises 32 countries and data from many of those is hard to obtain.

Conducted in five languages, the survey was launched late last year and ran into the first few weeks of this year. GAMA and IAOPA worked with the European Business Aviation Association on the survey.

The survey drew 2,650 responses from operators of 5,853 aircraft, with the primary respondents involving single-engine piston operators (3,902 aircraft). The initial survey results revealed that 10 percent of aircraft are registered outside the respondent’s nations and commercial flight schools made up the largest number of flying hours, followed by flying clubs. Cost of operation varied from less than €100 per hour to more than €260, but averaged about €170 per hour.