Originally Posted by
f16jetmech
I keep seeing this statement... is that just because of fuel prices and economy? You would think somewhere you could make money with a plane. I mean, how do any of the charter companies do it? Like flexjet and netjets etc.
You can make slim margins on an airplane on a 135 certificate on every flight. But when maint. comes up, or you need to send pilots to recurrent for their 6 month 8410's and insurance, or the airplane needs upgrades, or a radio craps out, or the nose wheel steering buys the farm, or you have a tire blow out, or the left main gear door develops a crack, or the cowl splits and the nose bowl needs to be replaced and re-painted, there goes not only your profits, but more than likely some money out of pocket too. My former employer was going to try and buy a Metro. He was going to get it for a song and dance, with a ton of spares. Even with financing half only of the cost on an airplane that was from the seventies, the monthly nut to crack would have left about $100/200 an hour in profit. On an airplane that might charter 35-40 hours on a REALLY good month, you do the math. Is the risk really worth the return? This was also paying the pilots hourly, not a salary. That is a good way to cycle through pilots like some cycle through underwear. If you want to keep a guy around, pay him a salary so when he's not flying, he still has piece of mind that his mortgage is still going to be paid.