By Adam Hunt
MALE/FEMALE DISTRIBUTION
Male 96%
Female 2%
Did not answer this question 2%
COPA is obviously a very male-dominated organization. Transport Canada indicates
that the percentage of women who hold pilot licences and permits in Canada is
only 5.9%. Obviously women are still not present in large numbers as pilot
licence holders or as COPA members.
OCCUPATION
The most common occupations reported were (in order):
Self-Employed
Farmer
Engineer
Airline Pilot/Professional pilot
Sales
Doctor/Physician/Surgeon
Manager
Consultant
Teacher
Business owner
Electrician
Truck Driver
AME
Dentist
Police Officer
Businessman
Accountant
Insurance industry
Lawyer
Construction Worker
Geologist
The percentage of retired members was 25%
The percentage of unemployed members was 1.2%
COPA members work in a huge variety of occupations, including executive,
professional, trades and aviation. It is noteworthy that over a quarter of
respondents classified themselves as retired.
The COPA “unemployment rate” is 1.2%, which is well below the national average
of about 7% this year. This indicates that COPA members are about six times more
likely to be employed than the general Canadian population of working age.
FAMILY INCOME
Here is what members told us about their family income:
$0-20,000 3%
$20,001-$30,000 9%
$30,001-$45,000 14%
$45,001-$60,000 20%
$60,001-$90,000 21%
$90,001-$125,000 14%
$125,000-$200,000 9%
$200,001 and up 4%
Did not answer this question 6%
Statistics Canada data shows that the average urban Canadian family income,
adjusted to 2002 levels is about $63,900. This number compares very closely with
the ranges found in this survey, showing that COPA members have very average
distributions of incomes. Like other Canadians, some COPA members are poor, some
are rich, but most are in the “middle class” range. This strongly supports the
assertion that COPA has made over the years that COPA members are average
Canadians who own airplanes not because they are rich but because they make
sacrifices to do so. A significant number of comments were received that
indicated that the cost of flying was an important factor in respondents
continuing in aviation. The comments included invocations to “keep costs down,”
“fight user fees and landing fees,” “keep fuel prices down” and “do something
about the high price of airplanes.”
It is readily apparent from the membership survey income figures and the
comments that COPA members cannot absorb any more increases in the cost of
flying. Any attempts to impose more government fees, higher Nav Canada fees,
increased fuel costs, 406 Mhz ELTs or other expenses will result in many COPA
members dropping out of aviation due solely to the cost. Keeping the cost of
aviation down was a common theme in the comments supporting COPA’s
representation work to government and industry.
MEMBER BENEFITS
We asked which COPA programs and services members valued.
Canadian Flight Annual 63%
Aircraft Insurance 55%
Hotel discounts 47%
Rental car discounts 43%
COPA Flights 25%
Annual Convention 18%
MasterCard 9%
Clothing Collection 8%
Life Insurance 6%
Home and auto insurance 6%
Moving and home relocations 3%
Note: Because some members checked more than one response these numbers will add
up to more than 100%.
COPA members clearly value some of the member benefits that COPA provides and
are not interested in others.
We asked for opinions about COPA’s newspaper COPA
Flight:
Excellent 68%
Good 28%
Fair 2%
Poor 0.06%
Did not answer this question 2%
The COPA member approval ratings for COPA Flight are extremely high. Ninety-six
per cent of respondents indicate that the newspaper is either “good” or
“excellent.” This is a very high rating for any publication in any field of
interest. It shows that COPA Flight has a formula that works well and is very
popular with the members.
Point two per cent of members asked for more French in the newspaper.
The next question dealt with whether COPA members
would like to see COPA Flight become solely a web-based publication.
Yes 7%
No 91%
Did not answer this question 2%
These results speak very clearly – survey respondents do not want to give up the
paper version of COPA Flight. Some of the comments received in this area
included: “I don’t take my computer to the bathroom with me,” “I work on a
computer all day at work. I do not want to come home and sit in front of one to
read COPA Flight.”
These responses and comments are very interesting in light of the results of the
earlier question that indicated that 92% of COPA members have Internet access.
It would seem that even though the vast majority of members have Internet
access, they still want a paper publication.
We asked whether COPA members would like to see
more advertising in COPA Flight:
Yes 68%
No 30%
Did not answer this question 2%
Slightly over two-thirds of respondents indicated that they would be in favour
of more advertising. Some of the comments attached to this question included,
“Only to keep membership fees where they are,” and “I would like to see lots
more classified ads.”
We asked if COPA members feel that COPA Flight
keeps them adequately informed about general aviation events.
Yes 96%
No 3%
Did not answer this question 1%
The results of this question indicate that most members are satisfied with the
general aviation coverage in the paper. The results are identical to the 96% of
members who rated the paper as “good” or “excellent” earlier. Taken together,
this indicates that a huge majority of members think that COPA Flight is “good”
to “excellent” and on topic.
We asked whether COPA members would like COPA
Flight to become a glossy magazine format, instead of the present tabloid
newspaper format:
Yes 15%
No 83%
Did not answer this question 2%
The results to this question show that a strong majority of members would like
to continue the current newspaper format. A number of comments were added to
this question. Most of them were similar to, “Only if it wouldn’t cost more,”
and “Nice to switch to a magazine format, but it would be thinner and more
expensive”.
VALUE FOR MEMBERSHIP
We asked whether members felt that they were getting good value from their
COPA membership:
Yes 95%
No 3%
Did not answer this question 2%
The results to this question are very close to those for COPA Flight indicating
a very high level of satisfaction with COPA and COPA Flight. It is worthy to
note that even though many members probably join COPA to participate in the
aviation insurance program they still feel that they are getting good value for
their money in belonging to COPA overall.
PROMOTIONAL ITEMS
We asked about whether COPA members value the promotional stickers and
fridge magnets that COPA mails out most years with membership renewal.
Yes 69%
No 29%
Did not answer this question 2%
The results for this question show that just over two-thirds of members
appreciate receiving the stickers and fridge magnets that have been sent out in
recent years.
NEW MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL METHODS
We asked if members were aware of the new ways that the association has
implemented of joining or renewing your membership.
Web banking 13%
Autorenewal 23%
Online renewal 37%
The levels of awareness of these programs are low. Given the results showing
that 92% of respondents have Internet access, members have the ability to use
these services, but they are either not aware of them or just are not interested
in the use of electronic commerce for membership processing.
MEMBERS' COMMENTS
We asked, “What should COPA be doing for recreational aviation in Canada
that it isn’t doing now?” This was an invitation to add some comments to the
survey form.
The comments sections of the survey were well responded to. Very few members
answered this question directly – most used the space on the form for comments
of a general nature.
In looking at the three sections where comments were requested, it was found to
be most effective to combine the comments into a single summary. Members’
comments covered all subjects and opinions, some in great depth. Here are data
on the most common comments, arranged by category:
Generally supporting the work of COPA 26%
Supporting COPA Representation work 16%
Positive comments regarding COPA Staff and Directors 11%
Negative comments regarding COPA Staff and Directors 1%
Negative comments about COPA’s aviation insurance program 0.6%
Other comments 45.6%
The comments showed great support for COPA in general and a reassuring degree of
support for COPA representation work to government and industry.
Most of the “pro-representation” comments were along the lines of “COPA must
work to keep fees low,” “ Keep Nav Canada in line,” “Work to eliminate the Nav
Canada ANS fee,” “eliminate landing fees,” and “Make sure Transport Canada
doesn’t wreck GA.”
A surprising number of respondents asked COPA to achieve things that have
already been achieved. Some of these included “Allow passenger carrying for
AULAs,” “Get rid of commercial hangar taxation for private hangars in Ontario,”
“Get the Ontario government to rebate road taxes on auto fuel used in planes,”
“COPA should have liability insurance for ultralights.” These types of comments
indicate that COPA is not communicating its existing programs and representation
victories effectively.
AVERAGE MEMBER PROFILE
One of the lessons learned from this survey is that the membership of COPA
is very homogenous in many respects. This makes it possible to construct a
relatively accurate typical member profile. While this average profile will not
reflect the total diversity of the membership, it will describe the typical
member.
The average COPA member is a 53-year-old male who is employed. He is most likely
self-employed, a farmer or an engineer. He has a family income in the
middle-income range of $60,000 to $90,000 per year. Flying is expensive for him
and he cannot support any more increases in fees and costs.
He is a Private Pilot who flies mostly single engine certified light aircraft
recreationally and has 500 flying hours total. He may have a seaplane rating. He
owns a Cessna, which he flies with a portable GPS.
He doesn’t plan to buy a new GPS in the next year. He doesn’t belong to any
aviation associations except COPA.
He has Internet access at home and uses the COPA Web site a few times a month.
He finds the Web site of some use.
Of the membership benefits he mostly values the COPA Flight newspaper, Canadian
Flight Annual, the COPA aircraft insurance program, the hotel discounts and the
rental car programs. He thinks that the representation work COPA does to
government and industry is important. He doesn’t belong to a COPA Flight or plan
to attend the Annual COPA Convention.
He is an enthusiastic COPA member and thinks that COPA membership is good value
for the membership fee, is well run and is doing an excellent job. He finds the
stickers and fridge magnets mailed out each year of value. He does not use
online systems to process his membership.
He thinks that the COPA Flight newspaper is excellent and it keeps him well
informed about general aviation in Canada. He is in favour of it staying in
newspaper format and not becoming a glossy magazine. He is in favour of more
advertising in COPA Flight to keep the costs of membership down. Even though he
has good Internet access he is very much opposed to COPA Flight becoming solely
a web-based publication.
FUTURE SURVEYS
As can be appreciated by the information gained in this survey, conducting
regular surveys of the membership is a valuable exercise that can help guide the
association and help it provide what members want. It is hoped that future
surveys will be conducted by COPA at regular intervals. With new software
available it should be possible to conduct the next survey as solely an online
survey, whereby the member’s input is deposited directly into a database, ready
for analysis. It is appreciated that the majority of COPA members responded to
this survey via mail or fax, but it is believed that online surveys are an
acceptable method of gathering data, given the results of this survey indicating
that 92% of COPA members have Internet access.
THANKS TO ALL
COPA would like to thank all those members who filled in the survey for
their time and efforts letting us know about you and what you think. Surveys
help us serve you better and help make COPA a better association to represent
you to government and industry. We would also like to thank VIP Pilot Centre and
Garmin for the joint donation of a Garmin 295.
QUESTIONS
Inquiries regarding this survey may be directed to Adam Hunt at Tel.:
613-236-4901, or by E-mail:
ahunt@copanational.org.