Every flight you fly has its own income statement. What it earns depends on who flew it, how far, and who was on board; what it costs depends on the aircraft, the fuel burned, the airports and the day it flew.
None of it is ever charged to you. Pilot pay is separate and never depends on how a flight performed.
Pick an airline type, an aircraft and a route from Amsterdam, fill the cabin, and watch where the money goes. Every number is worked out by the same pricing engine that settles your real flights.
Out of every $100 a flight earns, this is what each kind of airline spends it on, and what is left as margin. Worked out from our pilots' 3,236 flights of the last 30 days.
Every airline runs one of these models. It decides how its tickets are priced, what it sells on top, and several of its costs. The same aircraft on the same route earns very different money at Ryanair and at Lufthansa.
Full service. Meals, drinks and a bag are in the ticket, so the airline pays for catering and sells almost nothing on board. Fares are the highest and include a real business cabin on longer routes.
Lower fares with the extras sold separately: bags, seats and fees, and food bought on board. Lower handling and overhead costs, and aircraft flown harder.
The lowest fares on the network. A large share of the money comes from fees and on-board sales rather than the ticket, and every cost is cut to the bone.
Holiday and charter flying, often sold as part of a package. Mid-range fares, some extras, and a meal on the longer flights.
Small aircraft on thin routes. Few seats to spread the costs over, so fares per mile are higher than on a big jet.
Chartered by the hour rather than sold by the seat. The price per block hour rises with the size of the aircraft.
The passengers and cargo are the ones your flight actually carried. Each is priced for the distance flown: a longer trip costs more, but less per mile. Fares also follow part of any move in the fuel price, so they are running 15.9% above their one-year level today (fuel prices).
| Economy fare today | 250 nm | 500 nm | 1,000 nm | 2,000 nm | 4,000 nm | 6,000 nm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network carrier | $84 | $112 | $166 | $270 | $459 | $623 |
| Low-cost | $74 | $99 | $146 | $238 | $404 | $549 |
| Ultra low-cost | $60 | $80 | $118 | $192 | $326 | $443 |
| Leisure / charter | $76 | $101 | $150 | $244 | $414 | $563 |
| Regional | $119 | $158 | $235 | $381 | $648 | $879 |
| Cargo, per kg | $0.81 | $0.99 | $1.33 | $2.03 | $3.42 | $4.81 |
Every flight pays for the fuel it burned, the people who flew it, the aircraft and its upkeep, and the airports and airspace it used. Bigger aircraft cost more to own and maintain.
The fuel actually burned, at the hedged price at the departure airport on the day (at Amsterdam today $1.429 a kg). Usually a quarter to a third of all costs. How fuel is priced.
3.16 kg of CO2 for every kg of fuel. EU ETS allowances at $75 a tonne on flights within Europe, CORSIA offsets at $1.20 a tonne on other international flights.
The first officer by the hour, relief pilots on sectors over 8 hours, one cabin crew member per 50 seats, a $9 per diem an hour for everyone, and hotel rooms after 6-hour sectors. The captain is you, paid separately.
Airframe and engines by the block hour, plus a cost for every landing (brakes, tyres, landing gear). A landing firmer than 600 fpm triggers a hard landing inspection.
The lease or ownership cost, spread over the hours the aircraft flies. Low-cost airlines fly their aircraft harder, so each hour carries less of it.
En-route charges for the airspace crossed, by distance and aircraft weight, the way Eurocontrol charges them, plus the approach and tower charge at the departure airport.
A landing fee of $9 per tonne of maximum take-off weight, passenger service and security charges of $17 per passenger, and ground handling for the turnaround.
Paid by network airlines, whose meals are in the ticket, and by leisure airlines on longer flights. More for longer flights and for the front cabins.
A flight departing Europe that arrives three hours or more late owes its passengers EU261 compensation, by distance, for the 35% who claim.
Sales, distribution, insurance and head office, as a share of revenue: from 6% at an ultra low-cost airline to 14% at a network carrier.
| Typical rates by aircraft size | Lease / hour | Maintenance / hour |
|---|---|---|
| Turboprop | $350 | $420 |
| Regional jet | $700 | $620 |
| Narrowbody | $1,150 | $850 |
| Widebody | $3,000 | $2,100 |
| Four-engine | $3,800 | $3,600 |
Open any of your flights and scroll to Load & finance. It shows the income statement line by line: every fare class and extra, then every cost with its share of the total, down to the operating result, plus the load factor, the load at which that flight would have broken even, and what each passenger earned and cost.