Roger (K8RI) writes:

Wellll... At an operating cost that ranges from $11 to $24 per mile
puts the ball park operating cost per hour between $5,500 and $12,000
per hour under airline conditions which are probably going to be the
most efficient as they spend most of their time at altitude.

So a private owner of a large aircraft would be paying at least as
much to operate it, and probably much more?

That would an expensive way to travel. Then again, a private owner
could buy a BBJ, but I don't see how it could cost any less to operate
than the commercial versions of the same aircraft.

None of the big iron, that I know of, is single pilot certified.
So to fly one you are going to need to get type certified and take
recurrency training twice a year. On top of that the best you might do
would be to lease one complete with a pilot and copilot.

I was wondering about that in the aforementioned case of John
Travolta. He needs a copilot and engineer to fly his 707, doesn't he?

Based on what I can find, as an individual you might be able to come
up with a 737 for around $15,000 to $20,000 per hour if you are lucky.

I remember paying about $39 for flights from KPHX to KLAX in the
1980s, and if there are only 200 passengers on board, that works out
to $7800 in revenue for the flight, which respresents more than an
hour of operation. So that would be $22,500 or so of operational
costs for only $7800 in revenue. How did the airline make any money?

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