About Private Air Charter pricing
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011Many people new to executive aircraft charters have questions on pricing. Most common the per seat cost. USUALLY, private airplane charters are not sold by the seat but by the airplane flight hour or miles. Most passenger charters are priced by the hour and most cargo charters are by the mile. Some companies also price their passenger charters by the mile. It dose not really matter if the quoted price for the basic transportation is a fixed price. Simply stated you are renting the ENTIRE airplane for the flight time you have it, regardless of how many passengers are on board the airplane. The more passengers you have the lower the per seat cost, but air charters are very similar to renting a limousine, you pay by the hour. Many companies charge either a daily crew fee or charge hourly to cover the pilot waiting time. usually jet and turbo props have a daily crew rate and most companies operating smaller piston aircraft will charge an hourly fee up to a maximum per day, they do this because wait times for the piston twin segment of the market tend to be shorter and this segment of the market tends to be more price sensitive.
IF the company quotes you a fixed guaranteed price, either hourly or by the mile, they are betting that they can do the trip in that amount of time and still make money. If they reserve the right to charge you additional time after the fact, then they can give you a lower quoted price but might have to charge you actual hours.
Then there is the pilot wait or daily fees. The pilots still have to be paid even though they are waiting for your return and no matter how a company prices the flight, they still have to account for employee costs. This is why you want to get a final quote with all fees included so you can compare apples to apples. A listed hourly rate on the internet is not enough to go by, call the company, get a quote and then compare. Let the company know you are comparing prices from several operators and if you plan to fly on a regular basis, let them know that also. It is worth something to the company to have known future flying instead of ad hoc last minute trips, so they might give you a discount.
Additional fees you might have are fuel surcharges (American Business Airways does not as yet charge these unless it is for a brokered flight from another company). Foreign Air Traffic control fees, customs fees, Waiting fees, ramp, overnight and landing fees. Crew overnight expenses. These should all be included in any quote you receive.
At American Business Airways, we give you a firm price and, except for ground waiting time (if you go over your estimate), de-iceing costs, and Air Traffic control fees charged by some foreign countries and customs, this is the price you pay. We can not fix these extra costs because they are so variable, but most trips, these do not even come into play!
