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Old 30th Nov 2013, 19:37
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Cyrano
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
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Yvonne,

Welcome to PPRuNe, and I think you are posting in the right forum. Best of luck with your project.

I'd have to say that you're asking for rather a lot there!

First, you will know (I hope) that ACMI rates relate to wet-leasing an aircraft (i.e. with crew) from an airline that operates them. There are few or no European airlines offering some of the types you list, so if you are expecting a table listing a number for each of these aircraft, you'll be disappointed.

Second, there isn't one specific rate for a given aircraft, even from a specific operator. Aircraft costs have fixed and variable components, so the ACMI rate will depend on how many hours per month the aircraft is expected to fly. An operator may tell you "for 150 block hours per month, it'll be €500/hour, but for 100 block hours, it'll be €750 per hour." (Those are just hyothetical numbers, not real ones.)

But in the real world there's a more fundamental problem about starting your business plan with such a wide range of aircraft, both in seating capacity and in performance. For the route networks you indicate, you can eliminate a number of the aircraft straight away (the smaller turboprops are entirely unsuitable for the length of the sectors you're proposing from Oxford, while the short runway at Shoreham rules out the jets). But the main reason that startup airlines fail in the real world is that the promoters get too hung up on the sexy elements (choosing aircraft types, airline names, liveries etc.) and not enough on the boring commercial details (is there a genuine market demand? how big is it? who are the competitors? what are the fare levels out there in the market? how would my new carrier successfully sell its product to the market?).

You're aware (I hope) that in the last year, carriers have launched services from both OXF and ESH, and in both cases have failed abjectly. You would be well advised to look at comments made (on this forum and elsewhere) at the time, to learn about what those carriers were perceived to have done wrong.

In choosing OXF and ESH as your bases, you have presumably researched what the traffic potential is, who the key businesses are and which destinations are in demand. You presumably have a reason for suggesting OXF-FRA rather than OXF-MUC. You may wish to ponder why the startup carrier at ESH decided to fly to Pontoise rather than Orly (clue: slot availability). You will have an answer for why someone might want to spend 2 hours in a relatively slow turboprop from ESH to EDI rather than going to LGW and flying to EDI far more cheaply with easyJet. All of this demand-side analysis is utterly necessary homework before running the aircraft beauty contest (i.e. the supply side). Of course you can iterate the process after that - "which is more cost-effective for the market I've identified? 3 30-seaters a day, or 2 50-seaters?") But without a clear sense of the potential demand, you're wasting your time.

I am conscious that I have not answered your question, and I have "not done so" at some length. I wish you good luck with your project, but from the way you have posed your question, I fear that you are approaching it from a direction which at best is a waste of time and at worst gives you an entirely mistaken view of how to start a successful airline in the real world. A startup regional airline in the UK is probably one of the harder pitches to make in the airline world these days; to have any chance at all of success, your business plan needs to have solid foundations.
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