Where aviation companies are: 4,624 companies in 103 countries
Radu BalasPublished 2 min readThe Flying Engineer directory lists aviation companies from every part of the industry: charter operators, flight schools, maintenance shops, air ambulance services, parts suppliers and more. We counted every public company page to see where aviation businesses are and what they do. These are the results for October 2026.
The headline
- 4,624 aviation companies with a public page.
- 103 countries.
- 1 in 4 is a flight school.
- 44% of companies with a known country are in the United States.
The countries with the most aviation companies
Shares are of the 4,071 companies whose country we know.
| Country | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 1,791 | 44.0% |
| United Kingdom | 392 | 9.6% |
| Canada | 193 | 4.7% |
| Germany | 140 | 3.4% |
| France | 122 | 3.0% |
| India | 97 | 2.4% |
| Australia | 76 | 1.9% |
| Switzerland | 60 | 1.5% |
| United Arab Emirates | 59 | 1.4% |
| Italy | 48 | 1.2% |
The UK has more aviation companies in our directory than Germany, France and Italy combined. Switzerland, with under 9 million people, lists more than Italy.
What aviation companies do
| Service | Companies | Share of all |
|---|---|---|
| Flight schools | 1,145 | 24.8% |
| Private jet charter | 478 | 10.3% |
| Air ambulance | 422 | 9.1% |
| Chauffeur and airport transfers | 355 | 7.7% |
| Aircraft maintenance and MRO | 348 | 7.5% |
| Aviation attorneys | 243 | 5.3% |
| Avionics | 217 | 4.7% |
| Aviation software | 173 | 3.7% |
| Aviation startups | 169 | 3.7% |
| Aerospace manufacturers | 143 | 3.1% |
A company can offer more than one service, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Where each kind of company is
Flight schools
The United States leads with 670 flight schools, followed by Canada (77), the United Kingdom (41), Australia (25), the Philippines (24) and Spain (22). Within the US, Florida and California list 35 each, then Texas (34), Georgia (30) and Illinois (28). See flight schools in the United States.
Private jet charter
The United States lists 135 charter companies, the United Kingdom 36, Germany 15, India 11, and France and Monaco 10 each. Monaco, at about 2 square kilometres, matches France. In the US, Texas (33) and Florida (26) lead. See charter companies in the UK.
Air ambulance
After the United States (113) come the United Kingdom (55) and India (44), ahead of Canada (30), Germany (24) and the United Arab Emirates (15). Florida alone lists 28. See air ambulance companies.
Aircraft maintenance
Maintenance is the most US-heavy service in the directory: 131 in the United States against 10 in Germany and 9 in the United Kingdom. California (20), Texas (15) and Florida (14) lead. See maintenance and MRO companies.
How we counted
We counted every public company page in the Flying Engineer directory on 11 October 2026: 4,624 companies. Pages still being checked and archived companies are not included. The country is the one on the company's page; 553 companies have none yet and are left out of the country table. This is a count of our directory, not a census of the whole aviation industry: it reflects which companies are listed, and the United States is the largest single source of listings.
We will repeat this count every year. If your company is missing, add it.
