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Just curious—do you have an estimate for the actual operating costs? What does jet fuel go for and how much high are maintenance costs?

by danyim 7y ago

hwbehrens 7y ago
On average, it looks like it's about μ=$3,655.91 per flight hour (σ=$2,036.95), with a high correlation with maximum passengers. Cost per hour, per passenger is μ=$320.28, σ=$67.45, assuming the plane is full. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2015/november/16/hourly-operating-costs-of-45-jets-compared https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2015/november/1...
sokoloff 7y ago
Figure $50K year in year out for maint and an occasional $100K bad surprise. $25K for insurance and training. $25K for rural hangar and some multiple of that for big city hangar. Figure $2/mile for fuel on a long trip, $3/mi on a shorter hop. Jet-A ranges from $2.75/gal to $5/gal typically (with some outlier airports being higher). Fuel is heavy and hurts performance, so it’s rare to tanker significant quantities of “cheap” fuel. Those figures are roughly right for a legacy Citation with JT15s. Bigger jets might be more. Newer jets might be more fuel efficient (and correspondingly more expensive to buy). A legacy Citation is a 50-150 hour/yr airplane. Fly it much more than that and you'd be better off in a newer Citation with the FJ44s (more expensive engines, much better fuel specifics).
heelix 7y ago
One of my buddies transitioned from a turboprop to a lear. He would burn more fuel on the ground than we would would in a piston powered 182 for the entire trip. I think his burn rate was near 75gal/hour in the Cheyenne compared to our 12gal/hour or so. Figure $400/hour in fuel depending on what jet-a cost these days. Mind you, he went much faster/higher than what our bug smasher can do... you pay for that speed in fuel. For us, the next jump up to an old piston that could do 200kts/hour would likely burn 14-18gal/hour with a single engine. Looking at our FBO here, Jet-A is ~$5.80/gal and 100LL is ~$5.50/gal
- sokoloff 7y ago
  There are a variety of fuel programs (CAA, Colt, UVAir, others) to lower JetA prices significantly. It’s much more rare to be able to discount 100LL.

Just curious—do you have an estimate for the actual operating costs? What does jet fuel go for and how much high are maintenance costs?

by danyim 7y ago

Just curious—do you have an estimate for the actual operating costs? What does jet fuel go for and how much high are maintenance costs?

hwbehrens 7y ago

On average, it looks like it's about μ=$3,655.91 per flight hour (σ=$2,036.95), with a high correlation with maximum passengers. Cost per hour, per passenger is μ=$320.28, σ=$67.45, assuming the plane is full. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2015/november/16/hourly-operating-costs-of-45-jets-compared https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2015/november/1...

sokoloff 7y ago

Figure $50K year in year out for maint and an occasional $100K bad surprise. $25K for insurance and training. $25K for rural hangar and some multiple of that for big city hangar. Figure $2/mile for fuel on a long trip, $3/mi on a shorter hop. Jet-A ranges from $2.75/gal to $5/gal typically (with some outlier airports being higher). Fuel is heavy and hurts performance, so it’s rare to tanker significant quantities of “cheap” fuel. Those figures are roughly right for a legacy Citation with JT15s. Bigger jets might be more. Newer jets might be more fuel efficient (and correspondingly more expensive to buy). A legacy Citation is a 50-150 hour/yr airplane. Fly it much more than that and you'd be better off in a newer Citation with the FJ44s (more expensive engines, much better fuel specifics).

heelix 7y ago

One of my buddies transitioned from a turboprop to a lear. He would burn more fuel on the ground than we would would in a piston powered 182 for the entire trip. I think his burn rate was near 75gal/hour in the Cheyenne compared to our 12gal/hour or so. Figure $400/hour in fuel depending on what jet-a cost these days. Mind you, he went much faster/higher than what our bug smasher can do... you pay for that speed in fuel. For us, the next jump up to an old piston that could do 200kts/hour would likely burn 14-18gal/hour with a single engine. Looking at our FBO here, Jet-A is ~$5.80/gal and 100LL is ~$5.50/gal

sokoloff 7y ago
There are a variety of fuel programs (CAA, Colt, UVAir, others) to lower JetA prices significantly. It’s much more rare to be able to discount 100LL.