Originally Posted by
marcal
The CEO of my Far East airline made an interesting observation regarding aviation. Everyone makes money except the end providers of service. Meaning, the airline, flight school, pilot shop, etc being the end provider of the service tend to have super thin margins while the wholesalers, manufacturers, suppliers, caterer's, etc all do just fine. There is a guy near where I live that owns a company that manufactures rivets for airplanes and is a freaking billionaire and live in an enormous mansion. Not a sexy job but well paying nonetheless.
A couple folks come to my mind...a guy who is a bull semen dealer/supplier (not exactly sure how close he gets to the "business" end of things) who makes six figures. Oh, and I don't think he went to college.
The other guy owns a business that manufactures odd plastic parts. I flew with him in his nicely equipped Cessna 185 on amphibs. Didn't inquire about his income, but I think he's scraping by.