Charter airplane cost
 

Can anyone give me an idea of how much it might cost to charter a private plan from West Virginia to Texas?

My Grandmother has Alzheimer's and has deteiorated to the point where she could not make it through the ordeal of flying on a commercial aircraft. There would be no need for medical personel, just my Grandmother, Mom and Dad.

I really don't even know where to start looking for this kind of thing service or telling my Mom how much it might cost.

The way I've done it in the past, is contact the Signature Flight Support people at the airport you're traveling from. They're the largest private support service I'm aware of, and they've always been able to point me to quality charter services out of their airport. They're at signatureflight.com, and they have many, many more locations than what they've listed on the site.

Just out of curiosity, to set a scale for the price, I got an online quote from http://www.skyjet.com .
I have no experience with this company, or indeed with any charter service. From Bluefield/Mercer County, WV to DFW in a Learjet 31A (8 seats), they want $12,046.31. That's one-way, and this is their least expensive aircraft.

[This message has been edited by HomelessScientist (edited Feb 21, 2004).]

It sounds like you may not need something as large as a Lear Jet. The smallest jet widely available is the Cessna Citation, a range of types but with 4-6 seats typically. And a step down from that, but still perfectly feasible, is an equivalent sized turboprop, the Beech King Air being a standard in this area of the market.

A place to start looking is quite honestly in Yellow Pages, under Aircraft Charter. You will find several ads there, offering a range of aircraft, who are probably in fact agents, who find the actual operators for you and do all the organising. Try to find a helpful one (most are) who will guide you through all the steps, selecting the most appropriate departure and arrival airports, getting your cars onto the airfield through security, etc. They are quite used to this type of charter you are describing.

I think WHBM is right on - I've needed a small to medium sized plane for business on occasion when it was cheaper than flying groups commercially and the King Air is a great plane. Comfortable seats, usually room for 5 or 6 plus pilot. My guess is that for that many hours you'll pay between $4m and $6m unless they can get a paying customer for the way back.

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/eek.gif for hire? surely not

$4-6 Mil For 5-6 hours each way? No way. You can buy 25 hours on NetJets for $109,000

I think that's a typo for $4k to $6k. Even at the current Dollar:Pound exchange rate it sounded a bit expensive.

brj8826: This is a King Air exterior and interior.

http://www.aircraftdealer.com/dealer...inc/333/1a.jpg

http://www.aircraftdealer.com/dealer...inc/333/2a.jpg

Here's a few web sites to check out:

http://www.flightserv.com/

http://www.aircastle.net/

http://www.skyjet.com/

http://www.airelite.com/

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The King Air looks like it would be perfect as there would only be 3 passengers.

$4k - $6k is in the range that would be acceptable for my Mom to pay. She is living on a retired teacher's salary so we are definitely looking for no frills type service.

This is my husband's two cents on how to do it for less $ -- he is a private pilot:

There are several ways to approach this issue. First being is how much luggage would they be taking. Weight is a key issue if they are to reduce their costs. The less the carry the smaller the plane can be and thus the costs. That being said they also have to consider their comfort level in flying in a small plane - like a single engine plane.

If that works for them then the cheapest would be to contact the local airport and see what flight schools are in the area. Call the flight schools and tell them that they are looking to hire a flight instructor and a plane that holds 4 adults with say 50 lbs of luggage. The schools can tell them if they have an aircraft that can handle such a trip and instructor to spare for a few hours on a given day. That is the cheapest way they could make such a trip.

The flight in this type of plane would take 4 to 5 hours and would run about $55 to $60 per hour for the plane and about $15 to $20 per hour for the pilot. This would be for one way so you would have to double it for a drop off or round trip. Some places will not have the aircraft to do this and others will have more expensive aircraft that will fly faster but of course cost more. The charter services will be expensive compared to this method.

Thanks ALadyNCal,

This alternative sounds great. Luggage would be at a bare minimum. They could drive up and get all of my Grandmother's things at a later date.

Those numbers sound unrealistically low. I also question how much aggravation you'd be saving your grandmother by putting her in a small propeller plane as opposed to a large commercial aircraft. Even for $100/hour (with fuel, without pilot), you can only get a plane with the interior size/comfort of a subcompact car, traveling in which is IMHO more stressful than first-class commercial plane travel. Take a look at the plane you're renting to make sure there's enough room. Maybe even go for a test ride to check comfort and noise level.

Realistically, I'd expect to pay $100-$150/hour for the plane ("wet," which means including fuel) and maybe $30-$40/hour for the instructor/pilot (of course, the pilot becomes more expensive as the plane becomes larger and more comfortable). Use the roundtrip time to calculate the cost. The cost can be reasonable, but is much higher than the prices quoted above.

I don't know where you can hire a pilot for $15/hr.

[This message has been edited by pynchonesque (edited Feb 23, 2004).]

It would be worth the poster's time to make some calls and see what they can get at the area in question. Yes, depending on the type of plane rented, it could be $150/hour for a plane.

Call and flight school and ask for an instructor to do a short flight for you -- you'll find the pilot rate much more reasonable than you suspect.

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