The first year of aircraft ownership: the budget

An annual aircraft budget is counted in two blocks: fixed costs run whether or not you fly, variable costs are charged for every hour in the air. In the first year a third block joins them — the one-off costs of entry. That is the block that breaks plans, because the seller's presentation does not carry it.

Below is what arises before the first flight, what is paid once, and what stays for good.

What happens before the first flight

▪️ Pre-purchase inspection: a slot at the service centre, ferrying the aircraft there and back, the inspector's work. Who pays for what is fixed in the letter of intent.

▪️ Clearing the inspection findings. Part of the work falls on the seller as a discount off the price, part on the buyer in time and money.

▪️ Registration and choice of registry. Dual registration is not permitted, so the window between deregistration and registration is planned in advance: flying is impossible during it.

▪️ Customs clearance on import. With the document set assembled in advance — weeks. With discrepancies or a disputed classification — months, and the aircraft sits for all of them.

▪️ Insurance: hull cover on an agreed value plus third-party and passenger liability. Two contracts, two ways of pricing.

▪️ Entry into service: the contract with the operator, crew approvals, home base, slots, permits.

I have brought types new to the country onto the Russian registry: the HondaJet was moved across from the Maltese registry, and the AW169 went through separately. Moving an aircraft from one registry to another is a project in its own right with its own timeline, and it belongs in the first-year calendar alongside the inspection and customs.

One-off costs that will not return in the second year

The most underestimated item is retrofitting avionics to current communication and surveillance requirements. Orders of magnitude by type, based on my information: an ADS-B Out and FANS 1/A package on a Hawker 800 — $200,000–350,000, on a Challenger 604 — $600,000–$1 million, on a Global Express — $0.7–1.2 million. Installing satellite internet on a Global 5000 — $0.5–1 million.

Then come crew type training, paint and cabin refurbishment if the previous owner kept deferring them, and backdated entry into hourly-cost programmes: it costs more than continuous participation.

What stays for good

The fixed block: crew, hangar or parking, insurance, contributions to engine and airframe programmes, navigation databases and communications, administrative support. For a heavy aircraft that means two pilots and a cabin attendant, simulator training twice a year, medicals and approvals. Above 400 hours a year one set of people is already too few.

Orders of magnitude in the super-midsize class: on the Praetor 600, fixed costs are around $948,470 a year and variable costs around $4,029 per flight hour, based on my information.

The calendar of heavy checks

A separate question for the seller before the deal: does the next heavy airframe check fall inside your first year. On the Global Express the 120- and 180-month inspections cost $1.5–2.5 million. An outstanding 120-month check on a Global 6000 takes $0.8–1.5 million off the price of the aircraft — and that discount is exactly what you will spend, only a year later and on the service centre's invoice.

How this fits into the schedule

Three mistakes of the first year

▪️ Building the budget off the purchase price. A cheap aircraft costs more to run than it looks: on the Learjet 31A the market gives $499,000–$1.09 million for the aircraft, against a reference annual budget of about $1.97 million.

▪️ Not setting aside a reserve for the engines if the aircraft is outside an hourly-cost programme. The market prices the absence of a programme quite specifically: the Challenger 604 and Global 6000 lose $1.5–2 million in value, the Phenom 300 — $500,000–800,000.

▪️ Ferrying the aircraft before the import regime is settled. This is the most expensive mistake: the aircraft is already in the country, the decision has still not been taken.

The figures are reference points by type, based on my information. The first-year budget is calculated for the specific aircraft, its records, its base and the planned number of hours.

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

We can work out your first-year budget from your own inputs before the deposit goes in: https://grok.flights/go/tc-pervyy-god