How to beat the airlines flying your own plane.

[AdamFrisch]

Sometimes, in a rare blue moon, you can actually beat the system.:ok: It doesn't happen often (that's for sure), but on a recent trip to Las Vegas I saved up to 2 hrs in time compared to going by airline. Questionable if I saved any money in direct costs, but certainly not very far off. The airline would have cost $560 and my fuel costs were in the $300 range. This for a gas guzzling twin. In a fast single, like a Bonanza or a Mooney, these figures would probably improve by 50%. The overnight parking of the plane is comparable to the parking of the car at the airport. The taxi ride from the airport to hotel would have been the same, etc, etc.

Just a delusional owners justification, right?:{;):}:ouch::ok:

How to beat the airlines flying your own plane. - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RCk9v5dIcQ&feature=youtu.be)

[FleetFlyer]

I recently flew to France from my base in the south of England. Visiting Cherbourg, Granville, and Lannion. This was far cheaper than the alternative of a ferry or an airliner. My costs were about £250 for two people.

It's absolutely true that its very rare for flying to be financially advantageous. I've found there is a sweet spot between about 100 and 250 miles where my plane makes sense, being close to the cost of driving but much quicker. My cost is 35/hr and cruise is 90 knots. Any further, and comfort and cost normally dictate a commercial flight.

[monacam44]

I'm planning our annual sabbatical to Cannes and pondered for the first time in three years of going BA. No way!

4 Hours each way (including a very civilised lunch at Troyes) plus 2 weeks parking at Mandelieu is significantly less than BA's current prices.

Just means I can't have a G&T en-route....:)

[Hyph]

I have a regular business trip I make from the UK to a regional location in France.

My employer absolutely forbids the use of private aircraft whilst on company business, so I have to fly Air France to CDG and then a second AF flight to my destination.

Total trip duration from first take off to final landing = 6 hours. This is largely the result of ill-timed AF schedules and having to change terminals at CDG. Last time the cost was almost £800.

If I flew myself, I could go direct, usually in less than 3 hours and for considerably less than £800. :ok:

Grrr.

[FerrypilotDK]

Your employer is a muppet.

[Ultranomad]

For flying with 2-3 passengers, the cost per person beats the airlines in most cases. Sometimes it even beats buses.

[cockney steve]

Your employer is a muppet.

Or the HR/ 'elf 'n safety wallahs have got him /her running scared....then there's the question of Employer's Liability insurance...Oh there's also the question of remuneration for the flight...hire and reward and all that.

Yup! it all sounds idiotic,but similar problems beset the owners of small vans who *might*carry goods that aren't their own, or are in connection with a business.....Vanman does a mate a favour and moves a sofa, has an accident, Plod decides that his insurance is for plumbing-trade, so driving uninsured. extreme, -yes.but there are a lot of grey areas , using personal transport on any sort of business use.

[riverrock83]

Out of curiosity is your employer American based?
The company I work for got bought over by an American group last year, and this line appeared in the travel policy:
I. Travel on Charter or Personal Aircraft
Use of charter or personal aircraft for Company business is prohibited.

I've been travelling to Dublin every week for the last month (9 Airlingus flights and 1 Ryan Air)
With Air Lingus it ends up around £300 or so return per person. Its about the same for my to fly there in my bulldog (might take 30 min longer in the air) but I could take a passenger (there have been two of us flying out) so it would have saved the company around £1500.

I probably would have gone commercial anyway to stop "get there itis" and the group may not be happy for me to hog the aircraft every week.

However there is another site we often visit in Kilkenny. That involves flying to Dublin (1hr checkin, 1hr flight, 1hr baggage / passport(!)) then getting a hire car and doing a 2+ hour drive to Kilkenny. You're lucky to be there before 2pm after an 8am start. Flying myself would be 2 hours, plus (say) 1 hour to get the aircraft ready, saving at least 2 hours travel time. Since we also have to get back (which takes just as long), they would get an extra 1/2 day a week productive time from us, and knowing what they charge us out at, it would be a considerable saving of around £3900 per month between me and my colleague.

I'm sure my maths is a bit ropey but it doesn't matter - HR says no.

[A and C]

Any location within the non stop range of a light aircraft should be quicker door to door than the airlines.

I find that the light aircraft is better in the summer when the weather is good and the airline prices are high. In the winter when the airline prices are low and the weather is bad the airlines usually win largely because my aircraft is not equipped for flight into icing conditions.

[Hyph]

Riverrock83: Out of curiosity is your employer American based?
Yes, they are. And it's pretty much the same clause in my contract.

Annoyingly, my previous emp was UK-based and was much more amenable. But they paid a lot less, so at least now I have more money for flying.

[RatherBeFlying]

If the destination is within a day's drive, you can always expense the car mileage -- just leave off the taxi or car rental at the other end:E

The major trick is to ensure the weather will be good for the trip back -- or you will have to have a public transport option to get you back to your car.

The one time I had a weather problem for the trip home after a meeting, I overnighted and departed early in the morning in fine weather.

[Sam Rutherford]

My 'best' beat the airlines flight (or indeed any alternative):

Popham to St.Cyr (Paris), four up. 1h50 minutes (so about GBP100 in fuel and a tenner for the landing). No stop in Rouen as the customs guys weren't there so he just closed my flight plan as I went through the overhead. Merci!

Same flight with new plane (six up) takes just over an hour, and costs less than GBP40 including the landing. :)

Cheers, Sam.

[cockney steve]

and costs less than GBP40 including the landing.Shome Mishtake Shirley?

Unless that's £40 a head.....and that still seems damned cheap.

[Sam Rutherford]

Cessna 182 with the SMA diesel conversion.

My 1h20m flight consumes about 40L of Jet A, which costs 30 quid, then a tenner for the landing. So when we're full pax that's under £7 each... :D

Cheers, Sam.

[stickandrudderman]

So when we're full pax that's under £7 each... :D


'Kinell!

:D:D

[Tinstaafl]

+ other hourly costs & reserves: insurance, maintenance, hangarage, loan repayments, any recurrency training or recent experience requirements, other consumables (oil, TKS, O2 and the like), airways fees...

[cockney steve]

@ Tinstaafl yea, but you'd be paying all the fixed costs anyway.
Even allowing a margin 'it's an hour's operating overheads however you slice-and- dice , it would seem about £15 a head to cover the lot.

A bargain!...When do we leave?:}

[arra_halc]

I've Barton to IOM a few times.

Given the short notice booking actual flight costs for one up were cheaper than scheduled (varies which airline wants to run the route). Best bit was from Taxi in Douglas to Beer at home was quicker than the scheduled at any time. (Mainly due to long checkin plus longer times at the manchester end).

[reimomo]

40L of Jet A, which costs 30 quid

So that's not including the tax self-declaration that one needs to complete for aircraft running on diesel? I think it's over a £1/litre now.

The numbers for diesels look amazing until you factor this in...

[cockney steve]

Which, shirley, you'd claim back, anyway, as it's a flight using it outwith the UK.

[Morris542]

Anyway getting back to the point.

Flew to the IOW a few months back. Turns out it was cheaper to fly by close to £10 each. Booking on the day the ferry company quoted over £90 return! 3-4hrs from Kent by car took 1 hour in the air.

[malcolmf]

Popham to Scilly, we would have had to drive to Exeter, then fly, single fare was £150 each, we flew 2 of us for £300.

[AdamFrisch]

The other day I had one of those dream scenarios again. They don't happen often. My presence was requested in Baker City, OR (!) for work and the producer asked me if she should reserve a ticket to Boise or Portland for me, which would I prefer? Baker City is a small town on the border of Oregon and Idaho and the drive from Boise would be 2hrs. And from Portland a whopping 5hrs!

My options were:

1. LAX to either Phoenix or Salt Lake City. Wait 2 hrs, connect, then fly to Boise, then drive for 2 hrs. Total door to door travel time: about 10hrs

2. LAX direct to Portland, then drive for 5hrs. Total door to door: 10hrs

I took a quick glance at the map and sure enough; Baker City Municipal Airport with its 3 long rwy's was a mere three miles outside of town. "I'll get myself up there", I heard myself say. On the day, I comfortably cruised up there in perfect VFR in 3hrs 20mins with my second unit cameraman in tow, saving production even more money as they now didn't have to fly him either. Not only that, we brought our foldable bikes and could cycle in from airport ourselves. Door to door time was less than 5hrs.

Having your own plane sometimes - priceless.:ok::)

[AN2 Driver]

Short haul in Europe it can happen a lot as those are massively expensive, especcially if you want to go on a day by day basis.

For a while, my favorite run was ZRH-SZG, which takes 1:20 with my Mooney and about an hour when there are direct flights per airline. For a while there weren't any so it was via Frankfurt or Vienna. During this time, time AND money gain was tremendous! 2:40 flight hours for the return trip as opposed to 6-10 and around 500 Euros flight cost as opposed to 1100 Euros the airlines charged for a same day return. Now there is a scheduled service again but again, day trips are around 600 Euros and the flight time is around 50 minutes, but add to that check in and gate time.

This goes for many such point to point trips within maybe 200-300 NM where no airline is flying to or where times are not suitable.

[IO550]

Surely just flying your own plane IS beating the airlines.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Two trips I do fairly regularly are Cranfield - Prestwick, and Cranfield - Exeter.

Cranfield - Prestwick.

AA5, £90/hr: £480ish return, 2:40 each way.

Ryanair: 90mins to Stansted by car, 90 minute check-in, 90 minute flight, 30 minutes to get out: 5hrs each way. Much cheaper, but to get a couple of meetings in, add in a night stop in a hotel - plus 4 hours time lost in working hours.

Train: 1 hr to Watford, 6.5hrs by train each way - so 15 hours travel - around £250 return.

Roughly speaking, compared to flying scheduled break-even on money, save on time. And I don't have to fly Ryanair. Compared to the train I gain about 9 hours, add in £70 for a night in a budget hotel (or for the caledonian sleeper) and it's about £160 more expensive - or about £18/hr time gained.


Cranfield - Exeter

AA5, £90/hr, 1:20 each way - so £240 return.

Train: half hour to MK station, 3.5hrs train each way. £200 round trip.

So gain 4 hrs at a cost of £40 - £10/hr.


It depends a lot on routes of-course. To much of the British Isles, a moderately priced IFR-capable Shareoplane works pretty well for me, with a pax very well. I have no trouble stating that my time is worth more than £20/hr, so it's pretty easy to justify on either route. Ditto occasional trips to York, Belfast, Dundee...


Much beyond northern Europe, it ceases to make time or financial sense in my experience.

On all routes you will occasionally get stranded by weather so have to factor in a few random nights in hotels. On the other hand, I've missed trains before as well.

G