Phenom 100 operating costs.

Was depreciation counted into the operating costs?

It would be interesting to know that, as like all airplanes depreciation flattens after a number of years. So someone who would buy a 10 year old Phenom would experience a lesser depreciation, which would consequently have an impact on the 1200$ operating cost.

Also I assume that operating cost was calculated with US conditions in mind. It would be interesting to see what went inside this calc and to adapt it for European conditions, which may be very different, starting with a much higher fuel price.

I spoke to an experienced bizjet pilot and he says that’s about right. The CJ4 is about £1600 per hour, though the depreciation is much lower, around 15% in 7 years.

How does this compare with other light jets? IIRC the Phenom 100 is already one of the smallest jets.

It’s really depend on the operation and the number of hours per year you are doing.
I’m managing a Mustang for an owner (in Europe) and I can tell you that we are more closer to 1800-2000€/h if you cont everything.

Romain wrote:

I’m managing a Mustang for an owner (in Europe) and I can tell you that we are more closer to 1800-2000€/h if you cont everything.

Does it include crew cost?
It would be interesting to see how much it differes from Conklin & DeDecker…
https://www.conklindd.com/CDALibrary/ACCostSummary.aspx

Although the list above does not include fixed costs, only the variable AFAIK.

Interesting.
Why so much depreciation compared to the CJ4 ?

arj1 wrote:

Does it include crew cost?

No it does not include crew. They are working with freelancers.

Jujupilote wrote:

nteresting.
Why so much depreciation compared to the CJ4 ?

10 years ago he had the Phenom new.
We bought a 7 years old Mustang under programs, according to market before COVID we didn’t loose to much in capital cost.

Genuine corporate jets, used in the course of business, come with useful capital relief elements – analysing after tax cost would be useful.

This type at Cirrus prices (nearly Carbon Cub prices) is well engineered and must be close to low depreciation.

https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/191443611/1994-beechcraft-beechjet-400a

I am not sure the hourly west cost is the right number to look at. Just as an example I have picked up JetA1 between 0,50 EUR / liter and 2,00 EUR / liter. So as a first step I would try to make up the dry cost plus x liters per hour at whatever your fuel costs.

Also regarding depreciation the question is what does it include? Some people (like me) will just put the turbine wear on depreciation as it will be replaced maybe by my grandchildren. Others pay up programs. This drives the hourly cost but keep “depreciation” low.

As a bottom line as every pilot I keep dreaming about jets but the more I dove into the details the worse it got. Just my personal “hit list”:

• The Mustang ist over 12m long, this puts it in ICAO fire category 3 and many smaller airports have to bring in extra fire fighting just for your landing. Elba has limited times for such planes, Samedan will charge a crazy amount just for that.

• Type ratings and annual recurrent simulator trainings are great experiences but can be crazy expensive.

• Even N-Reg twin jets can not be maintained on condition. You end of doing the full maintenance manual at crazy cost. You get quoted quite acceptable hourly costs on the programs but you have to pay a high annual minimum like 175 hours or more even for private use. Imagine a situation like COVID, personal illness etc. where you can not fly and pay like crazy.

• Many European airfields are very short for jets with just the wheel brakes. This includes many very nice locations, Elba, Losinj, our local training airport EDBO etc. Courchevel is even forbidden for jets.

• Often on shorter legs you get held low by ATC and the fuel burn goes up like crazy.

• Nearly all charges go up exponentially with MTOW. The Mustang is actually still quite good just below 4 tons. Many jets are beyond 4 tons and charges can skyrocket.

So as cool as it might be to fly a jet a pre owned TBM, Meridian or even PC12 is probably the better choice in many cases.