Fokker have you seen their rates lately? Higher than many two seat trainers on the field that are less than five years old and still able to make a profit despite the finance and insurance costs that you get with a new aircraft, but which are largely offset by having warranty and no nasty maintenance surprises.
The rate should be set on fixed costs+variable costs+ replacement costs+ business fixed and variable costs+realistic return on capital. Not what the neighbours are charging less a bit. (and it's been a long time since RACWA were the dominant players or were keeping prices down!) The trick is to keep the fixed costs down, an eagle eye on the variables and enough liquidity to weather any storms.
Selling off capital assets and asking for money up front (liability on balance sheet) might give you some temporary cash but won't solve the problems in the long term, especially if that barely covers the interest payments on the bad debt. You can't raise finance without equity.
Many operators all over the world have gone bust...common thread...unrealistic expansion into volatile/mass overseas training markets, top heavy management and then the sure sign the end is nigh...asking for large deposits just to keep the cash flow going for a few more days. Seen it in the USA, UK, over East, history keeps on repeating itself. Angry disullusioned students (see unsecured creditors) coming to flying school and finding a padlock on the door and wondering where all their money went (see the person driving off into the distance in the expensive car?)
BTW Wondering how you have access to the financials of all the other operators at Jandakot?
