A passenger plane also has different cost depending on its model, ranging from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.
In short-term and medium voyages, the best-selling passenger plane is undoubtedly the Boeing 737. Due to different models, the prices of Boeing 737 are also different. According to existing information, the average price of the Boeing 737 series is about 570 million yuan, and this is just the cost to purchase. There are still many places to spend money after buying the plane.
The price of a passenger aircraft is so expensive, so can it make a profit within its service life?
If you want to answer this question, you must first know its income and expenses within its service life. If the Boeing 737 is regarded as a child, the lifelong expenses of this "child" will be very clear.
In the first year, the Boeing 737 little prince was "born".
From birth to rebirth, the Boeing 737 Little Prince spent 571.5 million in "milk powder money".
The lifespan of the Boeing 737 is only 25 years, and it will also face "illness" and need maintenance. It costs 5 million to 10 million yuan every year. In just 25 years of "machinery", the maintenance cost alone costs 125 million to 250 million.
Fortunately, Boeing 737 does not "limit the parents" because it will work on its own. As a mature and independent aircraft, it will make money on its own and pay back the "milk powder money". However, for the sake of work convenience, it chose a work location from Beijing to Shanghai, and only ran back and forth two times a day.
From Beijing to Shanghai, the one-way ticket price of Boeing 737 is roughly RMB 500-600. Because there will be a significant price increase during holidays, the average air ticket is tentatively set to be 600 yuan. Moreover, the aircraft will not be able to carry passengers every time, especially during the off-season, the empty occupancy rate may reach more than 30%. Let’s take 120 passengers at a time as an example.
Boeing 737 flies four times a day, which means that it can carry 480 passengers a day, and can earn 600 yuan per person, and the income of a day is 288,000 yuan.
If you want to pay off the "milk powder money" just by carrying passengers, it will take at least 1985 days to pay off the money you earn.
But "growth" is complicated, not just forever when you are born. During this period, in addition to maintenance fees, there are also education and training fees, daily miscellaneous fees, fuel fees, taxes and fees...
The target of education and training is of course not the Boeing 737, but the captain and flight attendant of the Boeing 737. We all know that in order to ensure the flight safety and flight quality of the aircraft, there are captains and flight attendants on the aircraft. Generally, there are two captains. The number of flight attendants is flexibly adjusted according to the number of passengers. According to 120 passengers, there should be at least three flight attendants. If there are more passengers in the first class, there will be one flight attendant.
Currently, the high income of domestic airline captains is Tibet Airlines, which has an annual income of about 1.6 million yuan. The annual income of some private airlines is about 1.4 million yuan. The income of the captains of the three major airlines is lower, about 700,000 yuan.
It takes an extremely long time to train a captain, and in terms of training costs, it costs about 5 million.
According to regulations, an aircraft must be equipped with ten pilots.
The salary of ten pilots is close to 10 million yuan per year, and the training cost is 50 million yuan.
The salary of the flight attendant is lower, with an annual salary of more than 100,000 yuan.
This calculation may be too unkind. After all, the flight attendant and the captain cannot commute all the time, so we can change the method to calculate according to the working hours.
averages flights of 240 hours per month, the captain is 300 yuan per hour, the deputy captain is 150 yuan, the crew is 70 yuan, and the programmer is 50 yuan. One month is 570×240=136,800 yuan, and the annual working hours salary is 1641,600 yuan. Their annual salary is the wages, plus basic salary and various subsidies. After passing the training, they can set out with the Boeing 737.
, and Boeing 737 flies 240 hours a month, consumes 2.5 tons of fuel per hour, consumes 600 tons of fuel per month, and consumes 7,200 tons per year.
The price of kerosene used in aviation is 4800 per ton, and the annual fuel cost can reach 7200×4800=34560,000 yuan, that is, 34.56 million yuan.
is filled with fuel, everything is ready, but the east wind is not available - before the flight starts, there is another step: apply for a route. The route is not free. The route fee is equivalent to the expressway fee when a car passes through the expressway. It is 1,000 yuan at a time, and 4,000 yuan four times a day, which is as high as 1.46 million yuan a year. After applying for route
, you must prepare to pay the take-off and landing fee. The take-off and landing fee is the multiple fees paid by the aircraft to take off and land at each civil airport , military and civilian airport and air and naval airports in accordance with the prescribed standards or co-documented records. The specific standards for take-off and drop fees vary from local area. From Beijing to Shanghai, the take-off and drop fees are 12,000 yuan per day, 48,000 yuan per year, and 17.52 million yuan per year.
In addition to the above types, there are also enterprises that pay an income tax rate of 25%, which is also a major expenditure.
As for some scattered expenses, such as electricity bills, apron parking fees, guidance fees, food and catering fees, cleaning fees, shipping fees, navigation and meteorological fees, operation and distribution fees... These expenses are too fragmentary and difficult to simply calculate.
Looking at these expenses, we seem to have foreseeed how much money can afford to bear so many expenses?
But airlines are not stupid.
Although it is a passenger aircraft, who stipulates that passenger aircraft cannot be used to transport cargo?
SF Express uses aircraft to transport express delivery to ensure efficient delivery. Of course, the passenger plane can do it too. Unlike passengers, passengers need to purchase air tickets online by themselves, while the passenger aircraft's cargo transportation business needs to negotiate and cooperate with companies in need to achieve long-term or short-term stable cargo transportation. If you have strong ability to talk about business, the income from cargo transportation will far exceed the income from ticket sales.
But there is no need to worry about insufficient cargo transportation business. Compared with the passenger air occupancy rate of 30%, freight will not have this situation. Basically, the full load business is rolling.
The cargo hold of the Boeing 737 can accommodate 18.4-52.5 cubic meters. Assuming that the cargo is transported at one time is 30 tons, the freight per kilogram is 30 yuan. Then the round-trip income of a day is 30×1000×30×4=3600,000 yuan, which is 3.6 million yuan.
However, other factors are not ruled out. Perhaps under certain special circumstances, the transportation of goods will not be fully loaded, so be more conservative and adjust the transportation income of a day to 3 million.
In a year, freight revenue alone can reach 300×365=1095 million, that is, 1.095 billion.
has all the customers and cargoes. Is there any project that can make airlines make money?
has, is advertising!
We usually see many small advertisements by bus, taxi, subway and high-speed rail, usually posted on seats, armrests, and next to windows. Occasionally, blank advertisements can be seen at tenders.
As a means of transportation, aircraft are naturally not immune to the common sense. Advertising can bring income to it, and there is no harm. Why not do it?
The monthly income of an advertisement is about 50,000 yuan, and ten advertisements are 500,000 yuan. The advertising fee for one year can reach 50×12=6 million. At present, so many incomes should be almost equal to expenditures.
But is the airline spending huge amounts of money to build airports, train captains and flight attendants, and buy planes just to make it easier for themselves to make money or lose money?
of course not.
With the belief in making money, the airline has launched an investment business.
For individuals, if they have deposits, those who are brave will invest in stock trading, and those who are stable will have interest on the bank.
For enterprises, the daily cash flow of is very large, and it is unrealistic to use it to store it in the bank, so they basically choose to invest. Even when the bank receives the inflow of funds, there will be a special department responsible for the investment. Otherwise, where will the bank make money and return it to the bank deposit and withdrawal customers as interest?
Aircraft belongs to airlines. Airlines spend a portion of their daily ticket money and cargo transportation income to professionals for investment, and they earn much more money than air ticket money.
Watching airlines making money in big cities, some small and medium-sized cities can no longer sit still and seek cooperation.
However, in these small and medium-sized cities, mainstream airlines are not willing to enter their branch airports because the income situation does not meet expectations. Capital needs to be supported by interests, and what is not profitable is a loss-making transaction.
So the government took action.
Almost all industries that are difficult to do but are indispensable have felt the government's "care".
The pharmaceutical industry and education industry are particularly prominent, and the transportation industry is not inferior.
For this situation, the local governments of these cities chose to sign a capacity purchase agreement (CPA) with the airlines to open routes, which not only ensures the airline's revenue, but also opens routes for local airlines.
On September 28, 2021, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced the 2022 civil aviation regional aviation subsidy budget, with a total amount of RMB 1.538 billion. Among them, the subsidy amount of China Airlines is as high as 293 million.
25 years have passed. Although there are minor illnesses and disasters, there are no major problems.
According to the rate of revenue and expenditure of the aircraft, after making money for so many years and spending so much money, is there any profit? Let’s go back to the original question: Can a passenger plane earn back its capital within its service life?
We have known before that the service life of an aircraft is generally 25 years. Revenues over 25 years of operation can reach nearly 30 billion, and expenditures can reach approximately 15 billion. Judging from this result, the aircraft can pay for its cost within its service life.
However, aircraft will also encounter various emergencies. For example, extreme weather may cause the cancellation of aircraft flights, or special circumstances may cause the aircraft to be scrapped. These situations will occur. However, the fact that the airline can continue to operate is already explained from the side: even if there are certain losses, it can turn losses into profits and continue to operate with the efforts of all parties.
Generally speaking, the little prince of Boeing 737 can "return home in glory".
If you unfortunately encounter a large disaster and the Boeing 737 prince does not work until his life is over, then the profit and loss problem is a different matter.
