Smith said those events all led to declines, which are being reversed. North Star returned as the flight training provider in2006.

In the past three years, for example, the program grew from 4,353 flight training hours in 2007 to 6,299 hours last year.

Jason Ceminsky, a trainer and an aviation adjunct faculty member at MSU, said he knows the university will face big budget decisions and knows that aviation is a higher cost program.

"I just hope they use the real numbers," he said.

He said that with Delta Airlinesnow in Minnesota and a large number of pilots retiring in the next few years, there is projected to be a shortage of thousands of pilots in the next decade.

Ceminsky also said the aviation majors at MSU are not the only MSU students using the aviation program.

To be a commercial pilot, a student needs a four-year degree. But the degree does not have to be in aviation. Many students, Ceminsky said, major in business or otherareas while also getting their pilot's training through the MSU aviation program and North Star.

Smith said the Mankato aviation program is the second largest, behind the University of North Dakota, in the five-state region.