Single Pilot 135 Startup
Hey, guys. I recently left a 135 gig freight dogging single pilot in a Caravan, and I'm exploring the idea of starting my own single pilot 135 operation (singe pilot, not single PIC). In my efforts to draft a business plan, the biggest obstacle I'm running into is determining market demand for a piston single or light twin (Seneca or similar).
The FAA's activity survey from 2012 seems to indicate piston 135 operators averaged about 240 hours per aircraft annually. That seems high and sometimes those numbers involve some complexity. Based on what I can tell from being around the biz for many years and some admittedly rudimentary research, I think a decently safe bet for a light twin in the Midwest is around 125-200 hours per year. If there's anyone that has experience with a single-aircraft operation like this, let me know what your take is on that. The last thing I want to do is undershoot the mark by 50 (or more) hours and struggle to break even. There are some good brokers in my area (plus FlyOtto) that tell me there's decent demand for a light twin, but they didn't get into specifics in terms of hours per year, etc. There seem to be quite a few flying around out there.
I'm very familiar with the cost side... Operating cost, etc. But, estimating revenue hours has proven to be difficult and there's really no clear information out there that I've been able to find yet.