Instructors are the pipeline's throughput constraint: every new pilot needs one, and most instructors are building hours on their way somewhere else.
Active in 2025
145,538
Change vs 2024
+7,411
Since 2015
+42%
History
2025145,538
2015 · 102,6282025 · 145,538
Last month
292 flight instructors appeared in the August 2026 releasable file that were not in July 2026. That file covers 47% of active pilots, and newly opted-in airmen look identical to newly certificated ones, so this is an upper bound on issuance rather than a count of it.