Fuel surcharge

ausrere

ausrere

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
1,682
Location
Austin, TX
Display Name
Display name:
Lisa
Just got this email from my FBO:

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Alliance Flight Academy Customers,

Due to the recent worldwide increase in fuel costs, it is necessary to apply a fuel surcharge to our rental rates effective April 25th. The rates will increase $5.00 per engine per hour for rental aircraft.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to call the office.

Thank you for your continued patronage,
Alliance Flight Academy
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Sheessh.. there goes my block rate savings! Does this hobby EVER get any cheaper? (Don't answer that.. it was a silly question I know) :no:
 
Lisa: Just be glad its only $5.00 per engine. Thats VERY reasonable depending of course upon the base rental price. In the Philly Area we are paying a fuel surchage based upon the plane about $10.00 for an Archer $15.00 for a Tiger all the way up to $39.00 (total) for a Seneca:(
 
AdamZ said:
Lisa: Just be glad its only $5.00 per engine. Thats VERY reasonable depending of course upon the base rental price. In the Philly Area we are paying a fuel surchage based upon the plane about $10.00 for an Archer $15.00 for a Tiger all the way up to $39.00 (total) for a Seneca:(
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My block rates here are $60.00 p/h for the 152 Aerobat, $80.00 p/h for the 1970 or 1977 Skyhawk, and they have a new 2001 Skyhawk that just went online for $95.00 p/h block rate. I think the Warrior and Cherokee are both $80.00 block as well, but I've never rented one of those. I've always rented the Skyhawks.
 
I HATE fuel surcharges, and think they are an utterly dishonest way of advertising lower prices that the FBO has no intention of meeting. Get real, are they ever really going to lower their rates? Heck, no. They just want to advertise planes for $83 or $99 hr instead of the $98 or $110 they are really charging you. Yuck!! It's a pet peeve of mine.
 
Joe, I know what you are saying, but a fuel surcharge is/should be temporary. I know many FBO's that charge a fuel surcharge when fuel prices jump up and when/if fuel prices drop the charge goes away. If fuel prices stay up for more than a few months then the rental price goes up and the fuel charge goes away.
Try owning . . . . . I have to charge myself a fuel surcharge and I'm about ready to get mad a go someplace else with my business :rofl:

Fly Safe,
Waldo
 
Joe Williams said:
I HATE fuel surcharges, and think they are an utterly dishonest way of advertising lower prices that the FBO has no intention of meeting. Get real, are they ever really going to lower their rates? Heck, no. They just want to advertise planes for $83 or $99 hr instead of the $98 or $110 they are really charging you. Yuck!! It's a pet peeve of mine.
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Eeeaasy there, hoss. We have not raised our rates for about a year, and were doing fine until the price of fuel suddenly shot up over the course of six weeks. So April 1, we added a $4.00/hour fuel surcharge when we went through the last of our "cheap" bulk-buy. Our current load was way expensive! Fuel prices have eased ever so slightly, if our next tanker costs less, we can quickly adjust/eliminate our surcharge. This is much easier than reprinting all our informational materials and reprogramming our bookkeeping software, which would be required if we raised our rates. BTW, we don't advertise our rates, and when people call, we advise them of the current fuel surcharge.
 
Joe Williams said:
I HATE fuel surcharges, and think they are an utterly dishonest way of advertising lower prices that the FBO has no intention of meeting. Get real, are they ever really going to lower their rates? Heck, no. They just want to advertise planes for $83 or $99 hr instead of the $98 or $110 they are really charging you. Yuck!! It's a pet peeve of mine.
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Joe, wait until they start charging for radios. Call it an electron surcharge.

I agree, the posted price should be all inclusive, no surprises. My flying club implemented surcharges about 3 years ago. Last time I looked they charge $2.45/hr for older -172s & -28s but it's probably gone up a lot since then. I think it's up to $5 +/hr for the newer 182. I don't rent much anymore but when I do I don't look too hard at the price.

In spite of what John seems to imply, I have never seen a surcharge drop. Especially truck load to truck load, or even quarter to quarter. Even when fuel dropped $0.30 to .50/gal the surcharge remained constant.
 
If the price of 100LL follows the Auto Gas prices then FBOs have seen a huge up surge in their price. As much as I don't like it the FBO can't suck it up forever. Look if you have a fuel surcharge IF prices ever come down its easier to say to your FBO hey drop the fuel surcharge. If the FBO increases rental rates just try to get them to drop them IF fuel ever becomes reasonable again.

I'm a renter and I respect the FBO's bottom line because it has an impact on how much I pay for an hour of flying. I once over heard a renter planning a flight to Cape Cod. I recommended airport B over Airport A b/c fuel was less expensive at B. The person's response was we don't have to worry about that b/c we are renting the plane wet. That really ticked me off. If you can save the FBO some money don't you think It will help keep the costs down for us renters! And I'm not taking about changing destinations or major diversions either.
 
Don't expect fuel prices to come down anytime soon. The price of crude oil, while currently lower than its most recent peak, is still on a steady trend upwards, and shows no sign of slowing its overall average growth.

http://www.oilnergy.com/1onymex.htm#now
 
My club just e-mailed us about increased rates, but didn't include the new rates. I don't know what they are.

I was under the impression that 100LL didn't exactly track gas, since there is only one manufacturer of it and they tend to make it in big batches.
 
As I understand it, that simply means that 100LL price changes tend to lag behind that of auto gas. And go down less often...
 
I read a recent article somewhere on the web (AOPA epilot, Aero News Network, ?) that stated 100LL wasn't as directly tied to the price of crude as auto gas, due to the difference in manufacter (additives and what not being a higher percentage of the cost than in auto gas). That said, obviously the main basic ingredient is the same, and it has skyrocketed. I know our FBO is going to great pains to keep his rates competetive. I also know the recent upswing in costs has bitten him hard, and I've been holding my breath each time I enter, waiting to see if "it" has happened yet....
 
T Bone said:
I know our FBO is going to great pains to keep his rates competetive. I also know the recent upswing in costs has bitten him hard, and I've been holding my breath each time I enter, waiting to see if "it" has happened yet....
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Last week the rate on my Citabria went from 119 +7 fuel surcharge to 121 +9 fuel surcharge. That's about $30 higher than an old 6,000-hour Citabria a local flying club has, but that club also charges you a fixed membership charge of $115 per month.

No matter how you slice it, the cost of this stuff just keeps going up.
 
I finally got the increased rates.

A Warrior went from $69.38/hour to $76.00/hour. The Cherokee 180 went from $70.38/hour to $78/hour. That's about a 9.5% increase!

The club used to be the least expensive alternative. Now they aren't anymore. Time to consider alternatives.
 
MSmith said:
I finally got the increased rates.

A Warrior went from $69.38/hour to $76.00/hour. The Cherokee 180 went from $70.38/hour to $78/hour. That's about a 9.5% increase!

The club used to be the least expensive alternative. Now they aren't anymore. Time to consider alternatives.
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Wish I could find rates like that around here. Cheapest I've found so far is a nice looking Warrior at Pottstown Muni for $85 hr. And he said his rates might go up because of insurance if he adds another Warrior and a Cherokee 140 like he is hoping to.

Other than that, Skyhawks run $90-$110 hr, Archers, a Tobago, and a Tiger for $98 hr, and a slew of 150s/152s for around $70 hr.
 
Facts are Facts. Fuel prices are sky rocketed. I'm doing my part. Last week I started taking the Bus to work. Funny thing is after a week I much prefer the 14 mile bus ride to the drive. I should have done it years ago.

I figure what I'm saving taking the Bus just about covers any aviation fuel surcharge, not to mention all the altruistic benefits of using mass transit.
 
Northeast Aviation at N87 (Robbinsville) has a Warrior cheaper (I think). They may have the unadvertised fuel surcharge, though.

The problem there is that my club has 5 Warriors and NE Aviation only has one at Robbinsville. On the other hand, my club is a 35-40 minute drive and Robbinsville is only 10 minutes ....
 
I tried the bus a few times for my commute - turns out that it took twice as long as driving and cost me more than my monthly parking spot. No thanks.
 
My drive is 40 miles one way through Phoenix metro area. On a good day, it's 35 minutes. My worst day was 1.5 hours (and that was exceptionally bad with accidents). Typically, I can count on 45 minutes.

By bus, it would be close to three hours, with transfers. Not even considering it. If I was closer, I'd consider biking (the weather is good for it here).

My wife and I car pool since we work at the same company. We both travel for work, however, so it isn't always possible. Sure makes that drive quicker, though, when we're in the HOV lane!
 
My drive is less that 20 miles thru metro Denver, with no real direct freeway access. On a light traffic time - around 6:00 am, it's 40 minutes, but can be as bad as 1.5 hrs ...
 
Sorry for the rant...

I agree that surcharges are BS. I don't have a problem with raising rates due to increased costs. I have a problem with false advertising of low costs that aren't all inclusive. If the rates need to go up to cover fuel costs, just raise the rates. They aren't going to go down substantially in the future, so don't bother with the surcharge crap.

It's like hotels adding a BIG energy surcharge to rates, so that advertised rates stay low. It's very annoying when your $100/night hotel is really $115 a night and they didn't bother to mention that in the advertising. Face it, energy and fuel costs aren't going down, so please dont call it a surcharge.
 
ErikU said:
It's like hotels adding a BIG energy surcharge to rates, so that advertised rates stay low. It's very annoying when your $100/night hotel is really $115 a night and they didn't bother to mention that in the advertising. Face it, energy and fuel costs aren't going down, so please dont call it a surcharge.
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I agree that it's distasteful. You find it everywhere, it seems. Take the car into the shop and you'll get hit with a hazardous material fee and a shop supplies fee. Your phone bill has a bunch of ridiculous charges, too. Don't get me started on that.

In my mind, overhead is overhead and the price you charge should include your cost of doing business as well as profit. If you can't live with that, as in the case of volatile fuel prices, don't try to muddle through it. Either eat the cost increase, raise prices, or change your paradigm. Change the pricing to dry rental, for example.
 
I know everyone does not like fuel surcharges. The airport that I work at part time instituted a fuel charge about a month ago. The owner did not want to do it but the cost of av gas is starting to do the same thing as the price od car gas at the pumps. It is not a steady price anymore. The bad part was just after he had redone the rates for the aircraft for the year he got hit with a $.35 a gallon increas in the cost of fuel. Each aircraft has a surcharge rate based on fuel consumption per hour of that aircraft. There is not enough profit margin to absorb an increase like that. The owner felt it was better to add the fuel surcharge than to continually bounce the general rate of the aircraft rental.
Dale H.
 
dwh said:
There is not enough profit margin to absorb an increase like that. The owner felt it was better to add the fuel surcharge than to continually bounce the general rate of the aircraft rental.
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The fuel price increases have turned my once-profitable leaseback it into a break-even proposition. The FBO increased the rate AND added a fuel surcharge (increased once itself) but it still may not be enough to induce me to keep it on the rental line. If it doesn't make money over time, it doesn't get rented. Period. I'm willing to eat an occasional monthly loss, but it's a business decision and I'm not going to subsidize the flying of people I've never met.
 
Ken Ibold said:
...I'm not going to subsidize the flying of people I've never met.
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How about people you have met? Hmmm, might be worth a trip to FL... :D
 
hey, how about this for a gripe:

I live 11 miles from work, door to door. 95% of my commute is on the toll road - it's the only truly viable way to get to work unless I want to drive a full hour. lately that route has been taking no less than 30 minutes... a few times even 50! (an accident, and again the only truly viable route east). (in good traffic it's 15-20 minutes tops, and at night it usually flows pretty well).

for these indignities the tolls went up about 6 months ago, to nearly 6 bucks a day. I live two miles from the toll gates, so if I lived a little closer in I would only pay 50 cents a day for now (the big toll gates are the dividing line b/w "privately funded" toll road and publicly funded toll road. if that makes sense.)

I'm also paying 36 bucks a week for gas and I do not drive an SUV, but my gas average has gone down to about 21 mpg due to the excessive stop go.

makes me fantasize about taking the loopy equity I am gaining on this place and moving somewhere a lot cheaper and saner like NC. I am getting close to the point where I could buy a house nearly outright down there, with my equity gained in the past year (so 6 bucks a day is easier to stomach I guess on tolls...)
 
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