bobdee
I agree; in fact it is better than that because the Revenue has no power to require that your chosen method of travel is the most economical. Otherwise, everybody would be forced to fly Ryanair and then take a bike.
Just make sure you have some documents supporting the flights, especially if it is done on a weekend and the business meeting is in Biarritz
FNG
May I suggest you stop being vague about this
Let me go back to my previous example.
X is a Dir of Ltd Company Y that owns a plane Z.
He rents Z from Y for £1000/hr (inclusive), for 500 hrs/year. X always takes 3 passengers who pay him £750/hr. In a given year, X thus spends £500,000 and he recovers £365,000 under the PPL cost sharing rules. So he is £125,000 out of pocket - exactly what the CAA wants. The whole point of PPL Cost Sharing is that the pilot doesn't make any money. All legit so far?
But Y now has £500,000 in the bank. Assuming a £500k plane and generous 25% capital allowances, Y will have made a net profit of about £350,000. X can draw this out in a gross salary of £350,000. (I am avoiding dividends because the CT treatment and the 10% tax credit complicate matters). He takes home about £200k from this.
So he is no longer out of pocket. Yes, you are right, he was not paid to fly. But he's made £75,000.
But as you say, no problem.
Clearly, these things are OK in moderation.