A. Cost of fuel per hour?
B. Pilot salaries per hour?
C. Maintainer salaries per hour?
D. Airframe development costs (pro-rated?)?
E. Cost of spare parts (week? month? year? multiple years?)
Cost of facilities required to house the planes, maintain them and also space required to store spare parts?
F. Opportunity costs for investing money spent on airplanes vice investing (in what? T-Bills? Mkt average?)?
G. All of the above?
H. Some of the above?
Math is hard. Accounting is a contrivance. But accounting is likely the worst of all worlds except for all the alternatives.
I’ve always understood the cost per flight hour to be
Direct operational cost (fuel, pilot, lading fees, other consumables)
Maintenance costs (Yearly maintenance / annual flight hours)
At minimum, and additionally added I think, development costs are expensed somehow. Kinda’ like depreciation (conceptually).
Although now that I think about it, maybe dev costs are folded in to purchase price. And not expensed operationally.
Reason I think about all this is because once I heard a Admiral say, “What goes in to flight hour costs?” The unanimous laughter around the table made me think the concept is not straightforward at all. Or simple.
But that was then and this is now. Maybe things have changed.
Sonoran Conservative 
What is cost of a ‘flight hour’?
Do you count and cost:
A. Cost of fuel per hour?
B. Pilot salaries per hour?
C. Maintainer salaries per hour?
D. Airframe development costs (pro-rated?)?
E. Cost of spare parts (week? month? year? multiple years?)
Cost of facilities required to house the planes, maintain them and also space required to store spare parts?
F. Opportunity costs for investing money spent on airplanes vice investing (in what? T-Bills? Mkt average?)?
G. All of the above?
H. Some of the above?
Math is hard. Accounting is a contrivance. But accounting is likely the worst of all worlds except for all the alternatives.
Don’t know, man-
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I’ve always understood the cost per flight hour to be
Direct operational cost (fuel, pilot, lading fees, other consumables)
Maintenance costs (Yearly maintenance / annual flight hours)
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At minimum, and additionally added I think, development costs are expensed somehow. Kinda’ like depreciation (conceptually).
Although now that I think about it, maybe dev costs are folded in to purchase price. And not expensed operationally.
Reason I think about all this is because once I heard a Admiral say, “What goes in to flight hour costs?” The unanimous laughter around the table made me think the concept is not straightforward at all. Or simple.
But that was then and this is now. Maybe things have changed.
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But not having to stop and ask for directions? Priceless.
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