P.S. I'd be very worried if I knew that I was training at, or hiring from, a place that is NOT making plenty of profit- wouldn't they be tempted to fiddle or forget to do things?!
Profit is a good thing I agree with that, and never said that flight schools should not make profits. Supernormal profits are not a good a thing, and have severe detrimental effect to the consumer/student. I disagree with the statement that they would fiddle something however, flight schools run on reputation. You just have to look at former posts, the minute someone is peeved off with their flight school a post appears on this forum saying what happened etc.
I am sure that everyone would be willing to pay extra if they knew that they would be getting better flight instructors, better equipment and this obviously raises that schools costs.
There are large differentials in costs amongst flight schools. If you buy for example a Porsche you want a Porsche, you don't want to have paid for a Ford Fiesta from somewhere calling themselves Porsche for Porsche prices.
Sagey