Can’t Make the Numbers Work to Buy an Aircraft? Here’s Some Help

There are options at your disposal that can put that airplane you want within reach.

Jason Depew

Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 10:27 AM ET

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What keeps you from buying that airplane you've been eyeing? [Photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Reducing or eliminating debt through higher down payments, better interest rates, or paying off the loan is a primary method to significantly cut fixed airplane ownership costs.
Forming partnerships to share ownership drastically lowers individual fixed costs and hourly rates, making airplane ownership substantially more affordable.
Choosing an aircraft with lower fuel consumption and a common, less expensive engine (for overhauls) helps reduce ongoing operational expenses.
A combination of these strategies, particularly partnerships and smart debt management, can lead to a dramatic reduction in overall ownership costs, potentially cutting the hourly rate by more than half.

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We recently covered the basic costs involved with owning an airplane. The numbers we found were high, even for a 47-year-old Cessna 172 with practically original avionics. This week, we’ll use our spreadsheet to find which line items drive most of our costs, and consider ways to reduce them.

Debt

While debt has its place in business transactions, I don’t like using it to fund luxuries…like airplanes are for many aviators. In our example, more than $9,000 of our annual $30,000 ownership expense was taken up by our loan. The biggest way to save money is to pay it off!