Basing an aircraft: what gets decided before the purchase

A buyer spends months choosing the aircraft and leaves the question of where it will stand until later. By the time the aircraft is bought, the choice of aerodrome has narrowed to wherever a space happened to be free. The owner then pays for that decision for several years.

Basing determines three things: what ownership costs, how long it takes to depart, and which routes are available at all. Here they are in order.

What basing consists of

A parking stand or a hangar. An open stand is cheaper by a multiple. A hangar protects the paint, the glazing and the seals from ultraviolet, hail and temperature swings, and in winter it removes the question of treatment before departure. Over a five-year horizon part of the difference in the invoices comes back as the condition of the aircraft at sale.

Maintenance. Scheduled checks are carried out by an organisation approved for your type. Where there is no such organisation at the aerodrome of basing, every check turns into a positioning flight.

Ground handling. Fuelling, towing, de-icing, steps, meeting passengers. Tariffs differ noticeably between aerodromes.

The cost of the crew. Pilots live near the base. An aerodrome two hours from the city means either an allowance for the journey or a crew that has to set out early.

Positioning flights eat the budget quietly

This is the main line item that goes unallowed-for in the purchase calculation.

Every flight to maintenance is flying hours without passengers. Fuel, engine time, accruals to the overhaul reserve, the crew's work. An hour of positioning costs the same as an hour with clients on board, and it carries zero payload.

Heavy checks come round every few years, light ones regularly. If the service organisation is three hours' flying away, the annual bill for positioning reaches the level of several months of hangarage.

So the calculation is done like this: add up the expected number of maintenance visits over three years, multiply by double the flight time and by the cost of the flying hour. Compare the result with the difference in parking price between the aerodromes.

The aerodrome's operating regime

The item that reveals itself in the first month of operation.

Operating hours. An aerodrome open round the clock and one that closes at 22:00 produce different schedules. Returning from a trip at midnight turns into a night in somebody else's city.

A customs and border crossing point. International flights depart only from aerodromes that have one. Its absence means an intermediate landing for clearance on every departure abroad.

Slots and congestion. At a busy aerodrome the time from request to departure stretches out. Part of the business aviation advantage is lost precisely here.

Type and noise restrictions. Some fields will not accept aircraft above a given weight, or limit night operations.

The drive to the aerodrome

This is counted door to door.

An aerodrome forty minutes from the office and one two hours away differ by three hours on every round trip. At thirty trips a year that is ninety hours of your time.

The saving on parking usually loses that comparison.

The alternate

A base goes out of action in predictable ways: runway works, weather minima, restrictions on the operating regime. A second aerodrome within a sensible radius settles the question before it arises.

Business aviation diverts to alternates the same way scheduled aviation does. In my experience there are two reasons: the weather, and the absence of a landing slot, which in Moscow comes down to traffic. A second aerodrome is what you need on days like those.

Check in advance: whether it accepts your type, whether stands are available there, whether it works at night.

Checklist before the deal

1. Find two or three fields where the aircraft could stand and obtain current tariffs from each for parking, hangarage and ground handling.
2. Establish whether an organisation approved for your type is present at the aerodrome itself or within an hour's flying.
3. Check the operating hours and the presence of a crossing point.
4. Cost the positioning flights for maintenance over three years in money.
5. Measure the drive from home and from the office at peak time, in practice.
6. Establish whether spaces are free now and what the waiting list is. Hangar spaces at popular fields are allocated well ahead.
7. Choose an alternate aerodrome and check it against the same points.

The order that works

The aerodrome is chosen together with the type of aircraft, before any deposit is paid. Sometimes it turns out that the field you need will not accept the aircraft you had nearly settled on, and that changes the whole shortlist.

A turn of that kind is cheaper to take at the selection stage. After the deal it costs either a change of base or several years of surcharges.

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