By Vincent Wigmans
Have you ever considered buying your own aircraft? More and more people are thinking about having their own aircraft since the beginning of the corona crisis. Many people no longer want to be on an aircraft with other people because they are afraid of getting infected. Also, airline schedules were severely disrupted, making travel impossible at times. Having your own plane represents a sense of independence; you have the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want.
Apart from the convenience, having your own aircraft also comes with a cost. The costs can vary considerably and can simply be divided into three groups. For example, there are implementation costs, which are the costs to put the aircraft on your desired registration. These include the costs for a pre-purchase inspection, aircraft broker, the ferry costs to fly the aircraft to your desired location, the import costs (customs / VAT), escrow fees etc. Then there are the annual costs, these are costs that need to be paid for hangarage, insurance, maintenance, subscriptions, training etc. Finally, there are the flight hour costs, these costs include fuel, landing fees, handling, crew travel, catering etc.
If a loan has been taken for the aircraft, it must be paid back on a monthly basis. In addition, we always recommend building up a maintenance reserve so that unforeseen repair costs can be paid. Below we give two examples. These examples assume a used aircraft without financing.
Single-engine aircraft (based on 200 hours yearly flight time)
-Purchase price €200,000.00
-Implementation cost €15,000.00
-Annual costs €20,000.00
-Price per flying hour €250.00
Mid Size Private Jet (based on 500 hours yearly including fixed crew and engine programs)
-Purchase price €2,000,000.00
-Implementation costs €75,000.00
-Annual costs €380,000.00
-Price per flight hour €2,500.00
The above examples obviously do not take into account the personal taste of the aircraft buyer. By this we mean a custom interior or a special color scheme on the aircraft. If these costs are incurred, they could fall into the implementation costs.
Do you need help buying an aircraft? Please contact us at sales@faaircraftsales.com, you can also call us at +31(0)15 820 0999. We will be happy to talk with you to find an aircraft that perfectly matches your travel profile.