I've just got back from my first ever holiday to the good ol US of A. I thought it rocked, I loved it out there, it was awesome.
But it is a good question. Why is it 2hours of brand new C172 hire (which was fully IFR equipped and even had autopilot) costs £130 where as a 1970s (80s if I'm lucky) aircraft costs £160 an hour here in the UK ? That is over twice as expensive.
Looking at the differences in fuel price and considering a burn rate of 9G\hour the UK costs me £42.35 in fuel. At $1 a litre in the US, we're talking £17.01 for the fuel.
So the aircraft rental is 160-42.35 = £117.65 an hour, whilst the US is £47.99 an hour. If we take taxes out of that then the UK price is £100\hour and the US is around £44.15 an hour.
I can't believe this is economies of scale. My club aircraft are always busy, that's why you have to book. So something radical is effecting the prices.
The only thing I can think is that we are far more stringent on safety and our aircraft are maintained (maybe CAA taxed) more than the US ? Certainly a license which costs £160 in the UK (and is free in the US) would suggest that we've got a very expensive CAA here which is greatly increasing costs ?
Or we're flying US aircraft which have been imported, with all spares having to be shipped from the US (subject to import duty etc) ?
Certainly £65/hour flying is something we can only dream of here in the UK
PS Let's try and keep on topic and not have a whole bunch of "if you are paying xxx £/h flying then you're an idiot and I only pay yyy £/h" posts. I'm very interested to know why it's so much cheaper in the land of the free.