groovinaviator

Does anyone know the operating cost of the regional aircraft you fly? I realize that the operating cost will vary based on the which company you fly for, but I am just looking for ballpark figures. If you could break it down either by operating $$$$/hour or $$$$/AvaliableSeatMile I would greatly appreciate it.

CRJ's
ERJ's
Beech 1900
Dash's
... and whatever else you can think of.

Ftrooppilot

See http://www.bombardier.com/en/0_0/0_0...ay_16_2006.pdf

Page 12 (other pages are interesting)


FROM ANOTHER SOURCE http://www.usatoday.com/travel/colum...grossman_x.htm

Seat Mile Cost Comparison (500 mile sector)
Airline Aircraft Configuration Operating cost per available seat mile
Typical U.S. regional Q400 76 7.9
Typical U.S. regional CRJ200 50 10.7
Typical U.S. regional CRJ700 70 9.8
Typical U.S. regional CRJ900 86 9.0
Southwest B737-700 37 7.6
AirTran B717-200 117 9.1
JetBlue A320-200 156 10.25
Alaska B737-700 120 11.7
Continental B737-800 154 14.8
United A320-200 143 15.1
Source: Bombardier estimate for regional aircraft; Raymond Jones for narrow body aircraft

NOTE: Data is two years old but makes an interesting comparison. (FTP)


Also see article: http://www.maxablog.com/2007/02/aawithout_bankr.html
where it states American has lowest CSM of Legacy / Majors and SWA has lowest CSM of all operators.

groovinaviator

Good info... thanks.

ToiletDuck

http://www.icao.int/icao/en/ro/allpi...g4/wp28app.pdf

kansas

Operating cost (fuel, mtx, etc.) is one thing...but don't forget labor!

Cardinal

Those ICAO numbers, while comprehensive, are way low - even if one adjusts for trebled fuel costs. Their number for a CRJ2 is $1100ish. That's about what it takes to realistically keep a B1900 in the air.

Airsupport

http://www.bts.gov/press_releases/20...bts029_06.html

I believe this link will provide you with the information you need.

Note: Eagle is the most expensive operator, but they also have the most passenger revenue yields. now that is good business

fosters

That site is misleading. For example, based on their stats alone, without doing any digging, would show that ExpressJet was the lowest of all. What that doesn't show you is that ExpressJet paid, on average, about $1.20-$1.50/gal less for jetA than everyone else. And with an average fuel burn of ~360 gal/hr, their numbers are based upon an operating cost of $500 or so less per hour. Now that isn't very fair .

What's that mean? Averaging out fuel costs:
$1632 - ExpressJet ERJ-145
$1491 - TSA ERJ-145
$1358 - Eagle ERJ-145

These figures include flight crew, mx, fuel, insurance, and lease costs. This is just the hourly cost of the aircraft, and doesn't take into account the overhead (ie support personal, management, profit, etc.).

Airsupport

I wouldn't exactly call the Department of Transportations Bureau of transportation statistics misleading... after all these are regulated, and required reports for all airlines in the Major Category. The fuel doesn't matter,, all of these statistics of bottom line "after all is said and done" statistics. I think you are mis reading them. Being in the first spot is not always good, it depends on what chart you are reading. Take this chart for example:

Table 12: Airline Domestic Unit Costs (Cents per Mile)

Regionals
Ranked by 1st Quarter 2006 Domestic Unit Costs
(Domestic Operating Expenses per Available Seat Mile in cents)

1Q 2006 RankRegional Carriers1st Quarter 2005 2nd Quarter 2005 3rd Quarter 2005 4th Quarter 2005 1st Quarter 2006 Comair 13.8 14.1 14.7 15.4 16.4 279.02
American Eagle 14.8 14.2 14.6 15.4 15.0 405.73
Sky West 13.7 13.3 13.7 14.3 14.4 388.94
Atlantic Southeast 13.7 12.3 13.3 13.8 14.0 271.15
Pinnacle 13.5 12.8 16.2 13.9 13.8 185.66
Mesa 10.6 10.5 10.7 11.4 12.7 251.67
Express Jet 12.7 11.8 11.7 12.1 12.2 336.4
Seven-Carrier Total 13.3 12.7 13.4 13.7 14.0 2,118.3

Comairs CPM is 16.4, that includes everything needed to take that seat 1 mile. Express Jet is 12.2, and that includes everything needed to take that seat 1 mile. These are stats reported by the airlines, and therefore include all known factors for the airline, including fuel savings

fosters

My data ALSO comes from the BTS, but is broken down quite a bit better than just a bottom line figure. It shows exactly where those simple, bottom line numbers you are copy/pasting come from.

I'll try explaining another way.

Let's say we both own regional airlines. We both operate the same equipment. Now, let's say our capacity purchase agreements differ slightly.

Hypothetically -

Constants: ERJ-145 aircraft (50 seats), fuel burn of 360 gals/hour, 300 mile average block hour rate. 50 seats x 300 miles/hr = 15,000 ASM/hour.

Company "A" (let's call them TSA) charges $2000/hr for their services which include the operation of the ERJ-145. This is what mainline pays us, nothing more. Out of this $2000, we pay flight crew, mx, the lease, fuel @ $2.00 gal, and profit. $2000/hr divided by 15,000 ASM's = 13.33 cents per ASM.

Company "B" (let's call them ExpressJet) charges $1700/hr for their services which include the operation of the ERJ-145. Out of that $1700/hr, they pay for flight crew, mx, the lease, fuel @ $0.66/gal*, and profit. $1700/hr divided by 15,000 ASM's/hr = 11.33 cents per ASM.

ExpressJet buys fuel for $0.66/gal. CAL picks up the $1.34/gal tab directly. (*Note - this information came from ExpressJet's annual report)

Who is "cheaper"? Obviously ExpressJet is at 11.33 cents per ASM vs. TSA's 13.33 cents per ASM. But are they? A quick look and you see that TSA bought it's fuel @ $2.00/gal. Correcting for this, ExpressJet's true relative "cost" per hour was 14.55 cents per ASM ($1.34/gal difference x 360 gals/hour = $482, + $1700 = $2182/15,000 = 14.55 cents/ASM).

Hope that makes sense.