PFPX operating costs calculations

[lanmancz]

Hello,

well this is a bit silly but I just bought PFPX for my flight planning recently and just for fun I'd like to add the operating costs into the flight planner. Not being a pilot or having any insight into how airlines operate though the only thing I managed to figure out is the current fuel cost which is ~$1.3/US gallon. Do you guys have perhaps some idea about some semi-realistic values for the rest of it for the 737-300 ?

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=jet-fuel

Edited June 19, 2016 by lanmancz

[glasscockpits]

I'd also be interested to know if anyone has relevant info on this. I'm wondering if the developers of PFPX will update their TOPCAT profiles to include the Classic. A fantastic trio by all means, PFPX,Topcat and IXEG.

[BW901]

That's not a bad start point for fuel price, though it does vary significantly airport to airport and between regions.

google "aircraft owners and operators guide" and you'll find some old PDF articles covering mx costs on different types, which'll be the bulk of variable costs other than fuel. The articles online are quite old, if you want to update add (compound) 4 or 5% per year since the date of the article. NG engine costs are higher than on the dash 3s on the Classics, but this is an entertainment sim!

more detailed costs are proprietary and commercially sensitive information to each airline and again they can vary quite a lot.

[jailer]

You can make some "educated" guesses based on the annual reports of certain airlines. For example, Southwest (w/ mixed fleet of classics and NG) had operating costs excl fuel in 2015 of 8.61 cents per ASM, 4.54 of which was attributable to salaries, benefits, etc.  If you assume a breakdown of 75% fixed salary and 25% variable (no idea if this is accurate), you'd have fixed operating cost excl fuel of 7.475 cents per ASM and variable costs of 1.135 cents per ASM.  With an average stage length of 750 miles, 2 hour duration and approximately 140 seats, you get fixed cost per flight of $7850 and $600 per hour.  (Then again, I know very little about airline economics so this could be completely wrong.)