In the past, I used to charter aircraft from a well known airfield in the southwest of England and was paying around GBP 185 / hour with fuel costing around GBP 1,68 / litre. Bearing the current exchange rate in mind, that equates to €212 / hour, with fuel costing the equivalent of approx. €1,93 / litre. Oh, that figure is Hobbs based so you can generally add 10% to that, so the hourly rate climbs to around €232 / hour, wet. For info, the aircraft is a Warrior 3 and has two GNS430s but no autopilot.
I’ve checked other sites – Wellesbourne would have cost slightly less but even so, the hourly rate is still around €180 for an old Archer 2.
If I compare that with my local club in Germany, even their oldest Archer 3 has twin GNS 430s, STEC 55 AP and costs around €142 / hour wet to fly – that’s wheels up, wheels down – or their latest Archer 3 with Glass cockpit costs around €162 / hour wet. And fuel costs €2,09…
So why is flying in UK so expensive? Is the cost of ownership so high – hangarage, insurance etc – that the clubs that charter have to charge such prices? In which case, the price of chartering in Italy would interest me – bearing in mind fuel is so expensive, I’m pretty sure their hourly rates will be….. uhh…. interesting to behold…. :-)
When you compare the EUR142/h wet with other providers you’ll find that this is extremely cheap and has no commercial viability. I assume that your club has the aircraft written off, do their own annuals and you are charged for the membership at something like EUR500 a year on top translating to anything from EUR10 to EUR50 on top per hour? Is your German Archer hangared? Hangarage alone costs like EUR4.000/year in the EDL area and needs to be offset.
I am aware of a (well-equipped) Archer in EDLN that is rented out at EUR260 and people are queueing with high demand. I can’t see anything unusual in your post..
Archer for 260 €? This sounds like madness. I used to rent out my (VFR but well equipped) 172M for 170 € and that used to cover the cost with 3rd party maintenance and hangarage. Cost in aviation (such as fuel) have not changed in the last few years.
achimha wrote:
Cost in aviation (such as fuel) have not changed in the last few years.
Sure it has – it’s (fuel) gone down ! 
I agree Achim that this price is outrageous but Patrick will back me up that this aircraft is being used at this rate. Just an example at the high end as the 142 wet is on the low end..
I suspect a combination of very high business rates and the very high cost of hangarage/parking at the airport they are based out of combined with very unpredictable income (due to the weather). All these costs must be passed onto the customer. The companies hiring out aircraft always seem to be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy so they are probably making very little money out of it.
mrfacts wrote:
When you compare the EUR142/h wet with other providers you’ll find that this is extremely cheap and has no commercial viability. I assume that your club has the aircraft written off, do their own annuals and you are charged for the membership at something like EUR500 a year on top translating to anything from EUR10 to EUR50 on top per hour? Is your German Archer hangared? Hangarage alone costs like EUR4.000/year in the EDL area and needs to be offset.
I am aware of a (well-equipped) Archer in EDLN that is rented out at EUR260 and people are queueing with high demand. I can’t see anything unusual in your post..
mrfacts wrote:
I agree Achim that this price is outrageous but Patrick will back me up that this aircraft is being used at this rate. Just an example at the high end as the 142 wet is on the low end..
I do – but then to back up Steve again, I rent IFR-equipped (i.e. twin GNS 430 etc.) Archer III aircraft with good availability from my club for 130 EUR/hour wet and the club has been operating without any major financial issues that I know of for a couple of decades now. Membership is 200 annually plus 300 base charter p.a. to benefit from the rate mentioned above. The only downside for me is getting there (140 km).
I think Alioth is probably “most right” here. Utilisation is mostly low in Europe – except in ATPL FTOs (which tend to operate DA40s and DA42s) and they fly them all the time they possibly can. When I was doing the FAA IR in Arizona, the PA28-161 I flew was doing 700-800hrs/year, and I know because I saw the paperwork (had to prove airworthiness to the DPE at the checkride, as a part of the oral exam!).
And yes business rates screw GA (especially private ownership) nicely by making hangarage unviable unless one is happy to pay 400-500 quid per month. I nearly bought a hangar in 2005 (got shafted by a crooked estate agent at the last moment) and packing it solidly with 10m-wingspan planes came to 500/m hangarage and that would only just cover business rates and the (much smaller) ground rent; total outgoings 23k/year. Zero return on the 220k hangar purchase cost – I was going to treat that as the cost of purchasing independence, peace of mind, and crucially the ability to do freelance maintenance.
The UK also has a culture of “rent it = shag it” which together with the widespread PPL training practice of “never touch the red lever”, rarely flying above 2000ft, and transponder=OFF to avoid “CAA hassle”, results in poor treatment by renters, which again increases rental charges because, in general, nobody rents a plane out which they don’t want to get shagged.
If you want to make renting cheaper, you need to do it within a club which has a good membership, good leadership which ensures that cowboys are kept out as far as possible, and needs to be in an affluent area with good road connections.
mrfacts wrote:
When you compare the EUR142/h wet with other providers you’ll find that this is extremely cheap and has no commercial viability. I assume that your club has the aircraft written off, do their own annuals and you are charged for the membership at something like EUR500 a year on top translating to anything from EUR10 to EUR50 on top per hour? Is your German Archer hangared? Hangarage alone costs like EUR4.000/year in the EDL area and needs to be offset.
I am aware of a (well-equipped) Archer in EDLN that is rented out at EUR260 and people are queueing with high demand. I can’t see anything unusual in your post..
The annual membership is, if I remember correctly, €330. So let’s say I charter 10 hours a year, that adds 33€ / hour but it still doesn’t explain why the cost to charter is so expensive in UK.
The aircraft are in good condition with all avionics working so the aircraft can’t be considered ‘shagged’ and all the aircraft are hangared – (for my aircraft I pay €220 / month). All the club aircraft are maintained by the local shop so no ‘self maintenance’ is carried out.
The thing is that a €330 annual membership will keep the worst cowboys away… In the UK there is rarely much significant annual cost. And some Europe-mainland clubs are ~ €1000; I recall some in Switzerland like that.
Also a hefty annual fee encourages utilisation. If there is no commitment then some people will cancel a trip if the cloudbase is below 3000ft It’s the same with fly-ins; if you block-book a hotel, organise a bus, and charge everyone €250, you get a high turnout.
