Helicopter operating costs
 

I was just wondering how much a super-puma rented for per hour?I saw an article recently where the navy quoted £42000 per hour for a Merlin!!

Somewhere in the region of £5k.


The figure in that article probably had one too many 'zeros'!

I think they may be including their mess bill and the station commanders gardener as well but the Lynx cost was £16000

I think that you'll find that the RN didn't quote anything: Treasury came up with an amortised figure of £41,588 in answer to a question in Parliament :eek:

However, according to the Defence Aircraft Capitation Rates the operating cost for just the machine is £3,162 per funded flying hour; made up of fuel and servicing costs. A Sea King is £3,183 per flying hour, so much for the doomsayers flapping on about the Merlin :p

The same document, however, then adds on the ancilliary costs to each aircraft, eg aircrew, Unit admin, amortisation, Agusta storage costs for spare parts for a minimum of six months after servicing requests, and the cast of thousands in the MoD, and with amazing accuracy comes up with £41,588 for the Merlin, and £16,723 for the SK5/7.

Figures lie, and liars figure ;)