Frontier Airlines Bankruptcy
What is going on? Frontier Airlines is seeking out bankruptcy, making this the forth airlines this month to go out of business. Unfortunately this has now become a hard business to compete in dealing with the high prices of fuel. Frontier Airlines says that they will continue their normal operations as soon as they reorganize their business.
Frontier says it will continue operations as it reorganizes. Their bankruptcy was forced after their credit card processor claimed they would be withholding a larger share of money from ticket transactions.
Frontier Airlines file for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York which prevents the credit card processor from increasing their holdback charges.
Ironically, ATA Airlines, Skybus Airlines and Aloha Airgroup have all filed for bankruptcy within the last two weeks.
Find Aircraft Financing With National Aircraft Finance Company
National Aircraft Finance Company (NAFCO) has over 30 years of experience in aircraft financing. They have the ability to provide financing for a wide range of airplanes ranging from smaller single engine and experimental airplanes all the way up to executive business class jets.
In the industry it is common for individuals and businesses to seek aircraft financing assistance for various types of airplanes. The element that makes NAFCO different is the fact that they can provide aircraft financing options regardless of the type of airplane you require financing for.
On the NAFCO web site, you will find quick and easy references to their current rates, terms and conditions. Additionally, you can access their loan calculator which will enable you to get loan estimates. From their web site you can also apply for an aircraft loan directly.
NAFCO is located at 3907 Aero Place Suite #1, Lakeland, Florida, 33811. You can contact them toll-free at (800) 999-3712 or you can contact them directly on their website using their contact form.
Find Cirrus Aircraft For Sale at Steel Aviation Aircraft Sales
Finding a good Cirrus airplane for sale with the assistance of a professional my be something of a challenge. For most people there is a lack of trust with the business professional. Over the years the times have changed a lot with buying and selling aircraft. Things are much different than they were back fifty years. Along with the ever changing times also there is a ever changing complexity with finding and purchasing an airplane listed for sale. And then we have a company called Steel Aviation, Inc.
Steel Aviation, Inc. is a company owned by Jaime L. Steel. She runs the business under her own terms upon strong principles and with extreme standards of business ethics. In many ways, she operates a business that separates itself from the crowd. Amazingly, in less than 2 years Steel Aviation, Inc has become the leading Cirrus aircraft reseller in the United States. The company lead the way in selling and acquiring more pre-owned Cirrus aircraft for her clients than any other dealer/broker in the country.
Steel Aviation Aircraft Sales currently has near 50 airplanes available in inventory, over 30 of which are Cirrus aircraft. If you’re looking to find a partner you can trust with helping you find a Cirrus aircraft or any other make / model of airplane, check out Steel Aviation’s aircraft for sale inventory page or contact them directly for further assistance.
Aerostar Aircraft Owners
Robert Stevens sent it a question he wanted to get more information about. Here is a copy of his email below.
I’ve been gathering information about potential planes for a possible purchase. On my short list are the T210 and some model of Bonanza. I had also considered going to a twin. I understand that with only 270 hours total time and no twin time, insurance will be difficult or impossible.
The plan would be to get the multi rating, get an instrument rating and do a crapload of dual hours in type. I am also wiling to do any other training, like Flight Safety and special Aerostar schools. I already have over 70 hours retract and complex single time.
How many hours would I need of multi and/or in type to be able to get insurance on a plane like an Aerostar? On the subject of Aerostars, what can you tell me about them? I’ve had my eye on those for some time. What is a realistic cruise speed? I’d be interested in it partly due to speed (over 200kts). I’d prefer a pressurized version, if I can afford it. What are the Machen mods? What makes on a Superstar? Anything you can say would help. Thanks.
In response to Robert’s questions, I received the follow response from a reader of the blog.
So, why do I want to jump right into something like an Aerostar? I’ve been analyzing what kind of flying I want/need to do. I’d like to replace most or all airline flights (except Hawaii) with my own plane. My wife and I like to travel a lot, and I figure a fast plane that can get us up to the flight levels, over a lot of weather and mountains, would do the job.
I like the idea of a 200-220kt cruise. I figure if I’m going to go through the hassle of getting a plane, I want it to do most of what I want to do, rather than buying and selling my way through planes. This plan might not work, but that’s why I’m here asking questions. Yeah, I know the insurance will be a hassle.
I’m hoping that time-in-type will make a difference, along with an instrument rating (I’ve been told instrument makes a BIG difference). If I do the IFR ticket in the plane, I can kill time-in-type and instrument at once. I know it will be more expensive to use an Aerostar, but then I’d be concentrating on flying one type of airplane.
I wouldn’t be in any hurry to get through it, I can take my time. What weird habits are created flying it? As for load, it doesn’t like to fly fully loaded? I had considered taking the rear seats out and putting in some kind of toilet for long trips. I’ll have the wife with me…women’s bladders, you know.
What are the typical costs of owning an airplane?
For those who want to get their private pilits license and purchase their own airplane, I figured people would want to know what about the costs of owning airplane. How much is the the airplane and fuel/oil? How much do mechanical inspections cost? How much does it cost to “tie down” your airplane at a field? How much does insurance cost? Here are some helpful pointers for you regarding these questions.
Fuel costs vary greatly around the country. At my local airport, where I fly, we have two grades of fuel available. Once grade is $4.30 a gallon, the other, 100LL, is $4.70. I have paid well over $5.00 a gallon for aviation fuel in the US. In other countries it is MUCH more.
I buy my oil directly from Shell Oil Company in 55 gallon drums for approximately $5.00 a gallon. The next cheapest is a case of six gallons. The most expensive is in quarts. Up to $5.00 or $6.00 a quart. I always carry a case of oil in my baggage compartment when I go on a trip. It not only holds the cost down, but the oil I use in my airplane is no longer available at most airports. Even Shell only sells it in drums.
Annual inspections and maintenance. Maintenance costs vary a great deal, and depend both on how MUCH maintenance you aircraft needs, and who you have do it. You can go to a fancy dancy shop with floors you can see your face in and everyone in neat uniforms and pay $200 for an oil change. Or you can do it yourself. If you find a shop that is willing to work with you and supervise your work, you can do most of the maintenance on your airplane yourself, with the A&P there to help. Obviously, I charge less for that kind of help than I charge if you want ME to do the work when you are not around. In my shop my usual shop rate if $40.00 an hour.
I charge less than that for some things, and more for others. I don’t make any money on parts, and don’t care whether I get them or you get them. I do charge a markup on parts that I have in stock, because inventory DOES cost money. Inspections are another item. An annual inspection usually takes anywhere from 10 hours to 40 hours, for a GA type aircraft. It depends on the aircraft and its systems. In my shop, you can save yourself a LOT of money if you help on the annual. There are many tasks that have to be done at annual time, that you can do, especially if I am there watching. For example, to do an annual, all fairings, access covers, seats, and cowlings have to be removed and replaced.
That alone is several hours work. You can pay ME $40 an hour to do it, or you can do it yourself, under my supervision. I prefer to have the airplane owner help with the annual. I believe that you have a much better understanding of your airplane and how it works if you take part in the inspections. It is also handy when questions come up. For example, I find a pulley that is airworthy NOW, but it certainly won’t last more than a year or two. Should I replace it now, while we have it open and it is easy, or wait until next year? How good do you want to feel about your airplane? Also, I can often point out ways that you can save yourself money by changing the way you operate your airplane.
Obviously, things like retractable gear increase the cost of the inspection, because the airplane must be jacked up and the gear cycled and clearances and mechanism checked. That addes quite a few hours to every annual inspection. Clearly also, twins have more to inspect than singles. Cost of ownership of an airplane seems to vary with the square of the cruising speed. An airplane that cruises at a comfortable 100 knots, like a Cessna 172 or that general performance category is a good baseline. An airplane that cruises at 200 knots will cost you just about four times as much to keep around! The least expensive airplanes to own are the simple trainers, expecially the older ones that don’t even have an electrical system to worry about. The fewer systems, the lower the cost.
Insurance Costs:
These costs are probably the toughest to swallow. They have been rising rapidly in recent years. For example, my insurance cost for my personal airplane, went from $1300 four years ago to $2800 last year because of changes in the aircraft insurance industry. The small companies have been disappearing, being bought up by a few big ones who have raised the rates. Insurance will generally be less on newer airplanes.
Older airplanes and taildraggers are considerably more expensive to insure, regardless of your experience. For example I have several thousand hours of taildragger time, and over six hundred hours in the particular aircraft I insure. Airplane insurance is funny stuff. Never “underinsure” an airplane. If you insure your airplane for $10,000, that tells the insurance company that $10,000 is the value of that airplane.
If you blow a tire, and go to the insurance company and they find that the salvage value of the airplane if greater than the insured value, they can “total” the airplane and pay you the $10,000 and it is THEIR airplane. You will get the option of buying your own airplane back from the insurance company for its “salvage” value, determined by competitive bids from the various “salvors” who choose to bid. Also make sure that your insured value covers your radios, and the annual increase in value that ALL aircraft have. I don’t remember a time in the last fifty years, when the value of an airplane that was more than a decade old went down.
Hangar and Tiedown:
These expenses really vary a lot. At our airport, an outside tie down is free. A hangar varys from $75 monthly to $125. The hangar costs have risen quite a bit in recent years. I happen to own my own hangar, so I don’t have that problem. You can pay more for a tiedown on the grass some places than you would pay for a fancy hangar where I live. I have seen hangar rents of $500 a month in some locations. Where I live, you can rent a three bedroom house for $500 a month. All I can say that would be meaningful about hangar and tie down costs, is go out to your friendly local airport and ASK!
Qantas Airlines Long Battle With Virgin
I don’t think Qantas expect to see Virgin go the wall, but Ansett Mark II is a DOA, and it will take some time for Virgin to build infrastructure in the smaller destinations. It is an opportunity, and QF would be stupid not to try to exploit it. as for AN Mark II, I suggest a quick work of the numbers reveals that based upon current plans, it is doomed. They hope to start at 20% of the market. That’s about half where they were a year ago.
They want to keepy half the staff. Maybe I have missed something but half the market and half the staff says their costs per Seat Mile aren’t going to change much. You rip out the premium seats and you get some more bodies on board, however that tends to reduce the revenue per revenue passenger mile. If you sell 12 business class seats for MEL-SYD at about $400 each each way, that is the same revenue as 48 economy class seats at $100 each.
The old AN had an ASM cost of about 30 australian cents per mile, so if you fill the aircraft, you need a fare that averages 120AUD each way for Syd Melborne or Sydney Brisbane to break even. Having removed the big revenue slug from the front of the aircraft, this becomes a more difficult problem, especially in the face of the Virgin Blue and QANTAS discounts. QF can afford them because they are still selling very expensive seats in the front of the aircraft to cover their high costs.
Virgin doesn’t need the expensive seats in the front of the aircraft because their costs are much lower. That leaves Ansett without the high revenue seats, but with the high costs. Bad Bad combination. If AN want to fly half of it’s old schedule, and be viable, they need to find a way to do it with not half the old staff, but a quarter. Things like maintenance, and IT functions including reservations, need to be contracted out. AN wasn’t big enough before, and certainly isn’t big enough now to make those operations efficient.
It is interesting to note that Southwest Airlines in the USA, with almost 360 737’s does none of their own heavy maintenance. It is contracted to Tramco (a unit of Goodrich), and there are Southwest teams of QA inspectors/supervisors on site at Tramco to make sure the work is done to WN’s satisfaction (as opposed to contracting it out and hoping for the best)…. Watch.. Once the election is over, the Government will pull the guarantees, it won’t take long after that…
Boeing Employees Credit Union
Many readers were wanting to learn more about the Boeing Employees Credit Union, specifically people wanted to know if they were eligible to join. I sent out a community email to subscribers and asked for information. David White was the first to respond back and here is what he had to say.
If you want a commercial bank then Washington Mutual seems to have the lowest fee’s and has a number of branches. Seafirst seems to have the highest and U.S. Bank is in the middle. If you are eligible (many people are) I would try B.E.C.U (Boeing Employees Credit Union). Low fees if any and good interest rates.
I don’t work for any now bank however I have worked for U.S. Bank and B.E.C.U. I have friends that have and do work for Seafirst and Keybank. In reguards to B.E.C.U….. Eligibility= anyone who does or has worked for ANY Boeing owned company OR ANYONE who is in ANYWAY related to that employee. (you would of course call B.E.C.U to verify that). Anyway that means if your Uncle in-laws 2nd cousin worked for Boeing in 1950 for 1 day then you are eligible. B.E.C.U. is not for people who want to have a branch on every corner…(they only have two) but they are the 4th largest Credit Union in the US. over 200,000 people.
I hope that clarifies things. Special thanks to David for responding back with the information.
Perspective on Cessna 172 Pricing
A few years ago at a Cessna press conference, someone complained about the high price of the new 172s. A Cessna executive pointed out that the new price was comparable to what they were charging for a 172 when production stopped in ‘85, adjusted for inflation.
I was surprised that no one reminded the executive that production stopped because no one would buy a 172 at the ‘85 price. Cessna is keeping themselves busy with 10 yrs. of pent up demand. When the flight schools have finished replenishing their fleets, they will either lower the price of a 172, or stop making them.
There are not too many individuals buying these planes. Maybe 6-7 yrs. ago you could get a runout ‘59 with an airframe that didn’t need too much work for $9K. Today, $9K will buy you a runout ‘59 with no interior, bad paint, and corrosion (i.e. a plane that’s worth more to the salvage yard than it is to a pilot).
