Bulk Hour Discounts
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Bulk Hour Discounts
Lets be upfront here- I own a flying club!
1) Flying club owners want to encourage people to fly and want to attract them with discounts if they bulk buy hours.
2) Pilots are quite rightly cautious about paying anything upfront and I to date have never taken any money upfront from anyone.
Have come up with an idea and just wanted to bounce it off people here.
10 hours FLYING for £80 hour/ WET to include home landing fees. Same rate applies to Cessna 152/ PA38s or PA28s.
You pay as you go at £88 per hour and then IF you have done 9 hours within three months you get the last hour for £8!!.
What have other clubs done to encourage/ discount flying without taking money upfront???
What would encourage you to rent a club ship?
Just trying to bounce ideas
Thanks guys
Chris
(Hinton Pilot Flight Training)
1) Flying club owners want to encourage people to fly and want to attract them with discounts if they bulk buy hours.
2) Pilots are quite rightly cautious about paying anything upfront and I to date have never taken any money upfront from anyone.
Have come up with an idea and just wanted to bounce it off people here.
10 hours FLYING for £80 hour/ WET to include home landing fees. Same rate applies to Cessna 152/ PA38s or PA28s.
You pay as you go at £88 per hour and then IF you have done 9 hours within three months you get the last hour for £8!!.
What have other clubs done to encourage/ discount flying without taking money upfront???
What would encourage you to rent a club ship?
Just trying to bounce ideas
Thanks guys
Chris
(Hinton Pilot Flight Training)
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I flew 50 hours in a tomahawk paying upfront at £95. When this was completed, I then had a refund of £20 an hour making the overall rate £75/hr wet. I felt secure knowing I didn't have to pay up front, perhaps you could come up with some similar incentive.
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What would encourage you to rent a club ship?
Join Date: Jan 2008
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I don't take upfront payments full stop. Its pay as you go.
In fact just last week only days after Cabair going tits up someone walked in and tried to negotiate a lower rate for bulk purchase and was visibly disappointed when I declined.
We just offer straight forward honest prices.
In fact just last week only days after Cabair going tits up someone walked in and tried to negotiate a lower rate for bulk purchase and was visibly disappointed when I declined.
We just offer straight forward honest prices.
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I agree and we have been doing the same. We have the same though and pilots seem really disappointed when we say we dont offer bulk discounts, yet I constantly warn people NEVER TO PAY UPFRONT!. It is just trying to find a safe middle ground.
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To be honest, I'll happily pay upfront for bulk discounts. Sure, there's a risk that the club might go bankrupt and I'll lose money; but its a risk that I'm aware of and prepared to take. Having been bitten once, I'd still consider it as a risk and would think about doing so again.
This is appealing because there's no risk of the pilot losing money should the club go bankrupt or change owners, and the time frame would encourage the pilot to fly more, but could it also encourage pilots to take-off to get the discounted hour even when the weather is unsuitable?
Of course, there's one other incentive you could think about offering...
...HM Forces Discounts!
Originally Posted by steakandchips
You pay as you go at £88 per hour and then IF you have done 9 hours within three months you get the last hour for £8!!
Of course, there's one other incentive you could think about offering...
...HM Forces Discounts!
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I think that idea would work well for hours builders, or during training, but these days a lot of qualified pilots are struggling to make 12 hours a year, leave alone 9 hours in 3 months.
Another possibility is the two tier membership system - either an annual fee and normal hire rates, or a monthly direct debit which gives you a discount on the standard fees. Essentially it's like a non-equity deal, so there's a background income and a level of customer loyalty. I know of a couple of clubs which do this, unfortunately I don't know how successful they are!
For most hirers, the deal breaker can be the minimum hours requirement when renting from clubs. For example, if you had to pay 3 hours hire to pop over to Duxford for the day, you'd probably not do it.
It's an unenviable task to square that particular circle - usage vs availability - but I suppose some usage is better than none at all.
It will be interesting to see if there are any other suggestions. Good luck.
Another possibility is the two tier membership system - either an annual fee and normal hire rates, or a monthly direct debit which gives you a discount on the standard fees. Essentially it's like a non-equity deal, so there's a background income and a level of customer loyalty. I know of a couple of clubs which do this, unfortunately I don't know how successful they are!
For most hirers, the deal breaker can be the minimum hours requirement when renting from clubs. For example, if you had to pay 3 hours hire to pop over to Duxford for the day, you'd probably not do it.
It's an unenviable task to square that particular circle - usage vs availability - but I suppose some usage is better than none at all.
It will be interesting to see if there are any other suggestions. Good luck.
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Small print!
While this post is not In any way aimed at of the people who have posted above I think that pilots should look very hard at the deal they are getting into.
The questions that have to be asked before you commit to a block of hours are :-
How is the aircraft time charged? An aircraft that is charged by a Hobbs that is run from the master switch is likely to give the pilot 10-15 min less time in the air than an aircraft that is charged take off to landing.
Whos paying for the fuel? What rate will fuel uplifted away from base be refunded? If you fly abroad who gets the drawback?
How has the aircraft been maintained ? If it looks like an old dog the chances are that company renting you the aircraft is squeezing the last drops of life from an aircraft. Do you think it is wise to hang your life on an aircraft that has been maintained to the very minimum standards that a company can get away with?
What is the company policy if you are delayed returning the aircraft due to weather?
Only when you get a satisfactory answer to the above questions can you decide if the deal is a good one.
In my opinion a Cessna 152 can't be run in the UK with a realistic continuing maintenance program if it is charged out at any less than £60/hour take off to landing dry ( Inc VAT ). If you are being charged any less there is a reason, usually it is because the company renting the aircraft to you are struggling and are not holding any reserves for future maintenance, sometimes it is because they are subleasing the aircraft from a private individual who has failed to do his sums.
About now I should say that I do offer aircraft for lease ( C152 & PA28) and have a realistic idea of the costs and the ways that some manage to avoid them.
The questions that have to be asked before you commit to a block of hours are :-
How is the aircraft time charged? An aircraft that is charged by a Hobbs that is run from the master switch is likely to give the pilot 10-15 min less time in the air than an aircraft that is charged take off to landing.
Whos paying for the fuel? What rate will fuel uplifted away from base be refunded? If you fly abroad who gets the drawback?
How has the aircraft been maintained ? If it looks like an old dog the chances are that company renting you the aircraft is squeezing the last drops of life from an aircraft. Do you think it is wise to hang your life on an aircraft that has been maintained to the very minimum standards that a company can get away with?
What is the company policy if you are delayed returning the aircraft due to weather?
Only when you get a satisfactory answer to the above questions can you decide if the deal is a good one.
In my opinion a Cessna 152 can't be run in the UK with a realistic continuing maintenance program if it is charged out at any less than £60/hour take off to landing dry ( Inc VAT ). If you are being charged any less there is a reason, usually it is because the company renting the aircraft to you are struggling and are not holding any reserves for future maintenance, sometimes it is because they are subleasing the aircraft from a private individual who has failed to do his sums.
About now I should say that I do offer aircraft for lease ( C152 & PA28) and have a realistic idea of the costs and the ways that some manage to avoid them.
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You pay as you go at £88 per hour and then IF you have done 9 hours within three months you get the last hour for £8!!.
You could also consider organising some flyouts. It helps renters get to know other renters and hopefully some of them will take to flying together in the future.
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Cabair Platinum Plus
I think I'm correct in recalling that Cabair once offered their Platinum Plus members the 10th hour free. But their discount options changed so much...
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Perhaps tiered membership like they do in the link below. Each tier includes different minimums, an allocation of blocked time and varying rollover amounts for unused time. This is somewhat similar to what znww5 suggested above but I just wanted to provide the link as I came across it previously and liked the idea (I am not a member but have flown with them casually).
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How about taking another/additional approach so as to increase usage and membership - most clubs are quite poor at making sure they are well known.
Posters at the burger van offering taster flights to friends of the parachutists, run a competition with a local paper or radio station for x hours of flying, auction a few flying lessons for a charity - there's a few ideas to kick things off.
Anything which gets you 'on the map' basically.
Hope that helps!
Posters at the burger van offering taster flights to friends of the parachutists, run a competition with a local paper or radio station for x hours of flying, auction a few flying lessons for a charity - there's a few ideas to kick things off.
Anything which gets you 'on the map' basically.
Hope that helps!
