Typical cost of a short-haul flight

[Nicholas49]

Not sure how far I'll get with this, but could some financially-savvy person tell me what the approximate cost of operating a fully-laden two flight using a B737 or A320 aircraft (for the sake or argument)?

I do realise there are any number of variables, but I would be interested to have a ball-park figure for the amount it costs an airline to carry out such an operation.

Thanks

[JSCL]

The big question is - what type of operation? Does the person running the route own the aircraft or are they leasing (whether it be charter, ACMI or similar). Also depends on the route.

An operation from MAN to LHR will cost less than LHR to CTA - much more detail needed. What pax configuration? Business/executive or general commercial?

Far too many aspects to consider. You could be looking at £15,000 - £65,000 for a one way flight using these. Certain routes carry higher fees and taxes too. Too many questions to give any kind of reasonable answer :)

[dusk2dawn]

For the 6 months of 2010 ending Sep. 30, Ryanair posted total operating expenses of € 1,666,200,000.

They claim to do 1500+ flights a day ~ 273,000+ flights / half year.

So about € 6103 / flight.... give or take.

http://www.ryanair.com/doc/investor/2011/q2_2011_doc.pdf

Disclaimer: Me knows nothing!

[OverRun]

JSCL is right - it varies dramatically.

In an airline operation, with the aircraft used 15 hours per day, figure on 10 cents per seat-km for the lowest cost carriers, and 14 cents per seat-km for the switched-on and lean/mean/trim larger carriers, and 20 cents per seat-km for the high cost legacy carriers. All in USD or AUD (they are about the same right now).

Boeing 737-800 @ 168 seats and an average block speed of 420 knots = 750 kph. 168 * 750 = 126,000 cents per hour = $12,600 per hour. A320 is approximately the same.

2 hour flight = $25,200. BUT you've gotta have that airline operation, a 30 minute turnaround at each end, and 15 hours flying per day.

A charter flight, where the plane flies out empty and back full, doubles the cost to $25,000 of course - provided the aircraft is busy with another 10 hours of flying that day. More than likely, the charter operation comes from a different airport altogether, the crew have to overnight somewhere, etc etc; and the cost can easily rise to $80,000 for the two hour flight. I saw exactly such a charter the other day - $120,000 for a 3.3 hours flight.