Talking to a fair number of NZ pilots during my holiday showed that many of your conventional flying training organisations are having a hard time with fewer folk learning to fly due to cost factors.
True some organisations may be having a hard time, but I know of quite a few that are equally not having a hard time.
Cost is not the issue. The cost of flight training in New Zealand has never been cheaper in terms of dollars earned per hours worked to the cost per hour of flying. Cost is used as an excuse. I don't remember the exact figures but I was told by someone who learned to fly in a Tiger Moth (circa 1950) that it cost him something like 80% of his weeks wage for an hours flying. Assume wage of only $300 per week (nearly $16,000 per year), 80% of that is $240, who is paying that $240/hour for a two seat trainer today?
There are other factors that cause some organisations to have a hard time. For example.
1. Some are very poor at customer service. They either don't attract more business or do a good job of driving busines away.
2. There more and more ways to spend the leisure dollar.