It depends what you call economical sense.
Someone who owns a suitable plane decides to use it in his/her business. How much does that persons hourly rate have to be to make economical sense.? So if we take a simple journey from LFRB to LFBH. About 1.5hrs flight time. Return journey 3hrs. By car we are talking 5hrs each way so 10hrs. Add say 2hrs for the meeting equals a 12 hr day versus 5hrs. Putting aside the fatigue how much does that 7hrs cost for an average CEO.
At the same time that CEO may own an aircraft anyway and would have certain costs for his hobby, anyway. Then when you use the aircraft for business you can claim back the VAT and set off other expenses against corporate or income tax. For many IMO this makes perfect economical sense.
I think the hourly cost of a fresh new DA42 or SR22 on corporate books and records (10 years depreciation & cost of capital) will be in 800E/h at 50h per year down to 500E/h for 100h per year
I doubt one can fly 300h per year in piston for regional business but will be curious to know how? It’s 90000km per year in a car or train on straight lines, maybe 150000km following roads? an Amazon truck driver with busy schedule in Europe will do about 150000km per year, how does this work as of today for delivering supplies and driving to meet clients?
If it’s that is the kind of commute distance a turboprop or jet may offer better advantage when it comes to lowering the number of hours?
I think EddsPeter uses his own plane for his business with success for many years.
That is true, but only for private business travel. Having the Bonnie equipped with TKS, onboard weather with the ADL and stormscope I have had to cancel 1-2 flights per year due of weather. Before Pandemic I was flying around 100 hrs for business purposes during a year.
To not forget it, it is a non turbo aircraft.
Landing a jet limits you to a comparitively small percentage of the 500 or so CAP airfields in France. They are also expensive. Although there are several football clubs who use private jets to move players and staff around the country to matches.
Then there are the outfits running turboprops for various businesses from air ambulances to training and many other uses in between. Within an hour’s drive from here we have companies running there own King Airs, TBM 700 (I forget the exact numbers 800s and 900s) Then there are 2 companies running PC12s. These are large companies many on to this thread argue that this is the only way using GA aircraft for.business makes sense.
I simply point out that there are also many small and medium size companies in.France using Senecas, DA42s and many other types for.business and it makes sense to their owners.
I sometimes wonder if one of the biggest problems in European GA is pilots “making with them negative waves” to borrow a phrase fro. Kelly’s Heroes.
Yes jets will be an overshoot for regional trips in France but in UK, I saw 3 private SF50s used for business but they sit on +2km runways (North Weald & Cranfield), for France, I am sure DA42 will do very fine but worth pointing using piston GA for business travel is done “for owner love” rather than economic reasons (same in UK & EU & US)
I should add that some of the figures bandied about for the hourly rate of a DA42 are totally wrong. The average hourly rate including depreciation, loan interest maintenance, engine reserve, fuel, hangarage, insurance and databases works out for 150hrs per year at around €420 per hour, which also happens to be around the same figure for renting or leasing. Any more than 150hrs per annum and the hourly rate comes down quite dramatically. This information comes from 3 owners who between them have 5 DA42s.
On 500k aircraft with low 5% depreciation (you have to convince some accountant to put 20 years somewhere) and cheap 3% interest loan plus 130E/h for fuel on economy cruise, it will be 400E/h on 150h per year excluding the obvious stuff (hangar, maintenance, insurance, engine), but yes as you say on this forum it’s worth every penny, especially if it’s used for business purpose !
Some of the direct operating cost (DOC) numbers I see posted are way above anything I have experienced. I think a lot of people have bought an old dog and are getting fleeced on maintenance. For example there used to be a guy here who had an Aztec and posted that he was spending £20k/year on unscheduled maintenance, which is IMHO completely ridiculous.
Obviously there is an element of “company owner likes flying so why not use it for business”. Here in the UK you have to be very careful doing that (lots of previous threads on that) since HMRC hate any business activity which the businessman enjoys; specifically where there is an element of private use. But maybe in France the rules are easier.
The French tax authorities are relaxed about flying for business or to and from work. They mainly treat it as of you were driving an estate car or van. The tax on a company car (non estate) is more onerous.
But the tax man doesn’t bristle with indignation when you put costs of flying your own aircraft in the expenses column of your tax declaration. Nor do most companies when you put it in on your expenses claim, although they may want to come to some sort of agreed cost per km.
But I really do not understand the negativity on this thread. @Peter decided he wanted to go to the Alps to take some photos. He waited until the weather was predicted to be good. That might have been a week or so wait. He assured himself that he met or avoided all Covid restrictions and went there and back, in a day 6hrs approx flying, and got both the photos and video he was looking for. Would a photographer who relies on selling those photographs as a business who also owns a well equipped TB20 not have done the same thing? And what would have been the more economical, let alone enjoyable “other means” of doing the same job. Outside of Covid if Peter had been doing his own metier and building a piece of electronic equipment for a company based near Megeve, or Annecy for which a meeting was required at either of those locations, I trust he would consider flying his own aircraft for that too, with the same built in flexibility in the planning?
Come on people, GA can be both enjoyable and a tool at the same time. We are privileged, so make the most of it.
My 2cats for what it’s worth.
