Civilian NPC's

[Monk]

Civilians would be those people who are otherwise known as cargo (or passengers). Most people wouldn't be able to afford their own ships anyway.

Still, it might be interesting to see the odd rich civilian in a family owned transport or something.

I agree with this. Look at it this way, most people don't own airplanes. When they want to go somewhere they buy a ticket and fly coach if they are average and first class if they have moolah. True, there are some jet-setters who own and/or pilot their own aircraft but I think they are a small enough minority that the number of real players fill in that hole (i.e. Freelancers, independent traders and explorers)