Helicopter charter: the price per hour and what makes up the invoice

Anyone chartering a helicopter for the first time holds one figure in mind — the price of an hour. As far as I know, a helicopter flight hour on the market runs from 100 to 350 thousand roubles. The spread is wide, and everything fits inside it: from a light machine whose purchase was paid off long ago to a medium helicopter with a fresh VIP cabin.

The invoice comes out at a different number. It usually holds more hours than you spent in the air, and beyond flight time there are several more lines on it. Here they are in order.

Rates by the machines most often chartered

The sums are as far as I know. Capacity and speeds come from the type catalogue.

The Mi-8 figure stands apart: it is the cost price of a flight hour in 2024 with everything included, before the operator's margin, and the charter rate sits above it. A machine that has been paid off works out differently: as far as I know, a Mi-8T was flying a couple of years ago at 120,000–140,000 roubles an hour and turning a profit. Hence two operators quoting different money for the same type, with both counting honestly — one has the helicopter on a lease, the other bought it long ago with its own funds.

Within a single row, the spread comes from the life remaining on components, the cabin finish, where the machine is based, and whether you fly once a year or every week.

We fly the Mi-8AMT and the Eurocopter EC130 T2, and two more Mi-8s were built for our clients and are working for them. The figures above I take from my own machines. We answer an enquiry within the working day; round-the-clock support is something I do not promise.

The hour starts at engine start

Flight time with most operators runs from engine start to engine shutdown. The warm-up, the taxi and waiting on the pad with the engine running all go on the invoice. On a half-hour trip those ground minutes move the total noticeably, so read the wording in the contract before you start bargaining over the rate.

What sits inside the hour itself — fuel, the engine overhaul reserve, scheduled checks, crew, insurance, parking — I covered separately, in what makes up a flight hour.

Why the invoice holds more hours than the flight

A helicopter sits at its own base. A departure from anywhere else means a repositioning leg out and a return leg back, and the client pays for those hours: the life of the components is used up at the same rate with people in the cabin and without them.

Next to that sits the daily minimum. Many operators have one, and on a short leg the client pays it in full even after flying less.

The invoice for an ordinary day out

Here is an example on the EC130. The rate, as far as I know, is around 300,000 roubles an hour. Base outside the city, the client's site 160 kilometres away, out in the morning, back in the evening, the machine waiting on site.

Flight time adds up to two hours. At a rate of around 300,000 roubles that is 600,000 for the flying, with standby and fees on top. About an hour and a half with passengers turned into two billed flight hours, and the difference came from the repositioning legs.

Hence the first question to put to an operator: where does the machine sit. Two lines out of six depend on the answer.

What else moves the total

Season and direction. A resort destination in season costs more than a business route of the same distance.

Payload. The design allowance per passenger is 90 kilograms. In heat and at altitude less useful load is left, and there are three options: fewer people, less fuel with a refuelling stop, or a larger machine. Larger means a different hourly rate.

Crew overnight. A return leg that slips to the next day brings a hotel and per diems onto the invoice.

Cabin layout. A Mi-8 with a VIP cabin and a Mi-8 in a passenger layout cost different money under the same type in the paperwork.

How to get quotes you can compare

Three operators will name three sums, and they can only be compared when the task is put to them identically. The enquiry should carry:

• departure and arrival points, with coordinates of the site if it is not a heliport;
• the date, the departure time and the time you need to be back;
• the number of people and the weight of the baggage;
• how many hours the machine waits on the ground.

Ask for the answer broken down by line: flight hours, repositioning, standby, fees — each with its own figure. An all-in sum cannot be compared: with one operator the repositioning sits inside it, with another it is billed on top.

And a question that is rarely asked: who is the operator, and whose name is on the contract of carriage. A broker sources the machine, the operator carries the liability, and these can be different companies.

The site at the far end is a subject of its own: where the machine can actually land and what gets checked before a first landing on private ground, I covered in the piece on helicopter charter in Moscow.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take a helicopter without a crew and pay less?

Commercial carriage is performed by a certificated operator, and the machine arrives with that operator's crew. Renting without a crew lives in a different circuit: it is taken by companies that hold their own certificate, their own pilots and their own continuing airworthiness organisation. For a one-off flight that route is closed, and there are no savings in it — the costs simply move to your side.

The rate was quoted in dollars and the invoice comes in roubles — at what exchange rate?

This is written into the contract, and the wording varies: the rate on the date of the flight, of the invoice, of the payment, or a rate with a mark-up. On a prepayment made a month ahead, a few percent of exchange rate turns into real money. Ask about the rate and the date it is fixed at the same time as you ask about the price.

Why does a night departure cost more, and why is it sometimes refused?

Fewer sites operate at night, and the requirements for the machine's equipment and the captain's rating are higher. Single-engine machines fly in darkness in far from every place. The difference in equipment shows in a simple example: the Mi-8 and the Mi-171A2 have an autopilot, the EC130 does not — there the controls are only frictioned off. Plan the return leg in daylight, or budget for the crew to stay overnight.

Alexander Filimonov — business aviation: charter, sourcing and entry into service of aircraft.