Why are air tickets expensive? Not just because of every gas money

Going to the plane is expensive, isn't it? There are many people think that is because the cost of gasoline for aircraft is very expensive. But is it true?

* The data in the article is for reference only, it may vary depending on the country

An Airbus A320 can hold nearly 25,000 liters of fuel, which is equivalent to 376 Toyota Camry cars containing gasoline heads. Every mile (about 1.6 km) that the A320 flies, it will burn about 5.6 liters of gasoline.

Airbus A320 requires 1200 liters of gasoline to fly from New York City to Washington DC (USA) with a distance of nearly 350km.

For a closer comparison, the Airbus A320 needs 1200 liters of gasoline to fly from New York City to Washington DC (USA) with a distance of nearly 350km, which looks extremely gas-hungry. However, an A320 aircraft has capacity of 154 people, the fuel index of the aircraft per capita is 44.5 km / 1 liter of gasoline. According to the US Bureau of Transportation, 1 liter of gasoline costs only about 0.34 USD. So the conclusion to fly from New York to Washington DC, one person only costs an average of 2.5 USD of fuel costs.

So costly fuel is just an incorrect hypothesis, what really makes the tickets in this flight cost an average of 80 USD? There are many reasons for this.

1. Manpower costs

We will start with 2.5 USD of gas for each passenger.

A pilot with an average salary of about $ 79,000 a year, he will drive about 1800 hours, an average flight time will cost $ 44 to pay for a pilot, and need 2 pilots to operate, a total of is 88 USD (from New York to Washington DC takes about 1 hour flight).

In total, the cost for manpower flight is 240 USD.

An A320 filled with passengers needs about 4 flight attendants, each will be paid 38 USD 1 hour, so the average cost for the attendant is 152 USD.

In total, the cost for the manpower flight is 240 USD, divided by 154 passengers, the fee for each passenger is 1.5 USD.

The current total cost per passenger is 4 USD.

2. Yard cost

New York's JFK Airport charges about $ 6.33 per 1000 pounds (450 kg) of take-off aircraft, the A320 has a volume of 172,000 pounds (78 tons), so the cost of taking off for the A320 is $ 1,089, or $ 7 for each person on the plane, similar to the cost of landing. Finally, each person on the plane must bear a fee of about $ 13.5 for the airport yard.

The current total cost for each passenger is 17.5 USD.

3. Taxes

The rates applicable to each airport in each country are different. In this article, we will use US tax to symbolize. The taxes that the airline has to bear when it is in the US are usually at $ 15.6 per passenger on the plane.

The current total cost for each passenger is 33 USD.

4. Aircraft operation fee

An Airbus A320 is priced at US $ 107 million.

An A320 is priced at US $ 107 million.The cost of operating the aircraft is not calculated by flight time, it is calculated by the flight cycle , or simply understood as a flight cycle of one flight, no matter how short or long flights. Every time you take off, the aircraft must maintain the internal pressure, and this will cause the aircraft to appear tiny cracks near the studs. Whether flying for 30 minutes or 9 hours, this damage has not changed. That's why large planes are used for a long time because they operate only about once a day, while smaller aircraft operate more trips during the day.

The A320 can operate around 60,000 cycles, so each person on the plane will have to bear about $ 11.5 in operating costs on each trip.

The current total cost per passenger is USD 44.5.

5. Aircraft maintenance fee

To keep the aircraft in good condition, regular maintenance is a must. After each flight, the aircraft must be serviced at a cost of about 2121 USD, or 14 USD per passenger.

The current total cost per passenger is US $ 58.5.

6. Charges for employees on the ground

The cost for employees on the ground is about 10 USD / passenger.

These costs include air traffic control fees, flight operator fees, ticket sales staff, marketing staff, etc.

These costs are about 10 USD per passenger.

The current total cost per passenger is US $ 68.5.

7. Insurance

An airline will pay about $ 106,500 in insurance for the A320 aircraft 1 year, on average each person in an hour will be subject to a premium of $ 0.25.

The remaining 10 USD will be the airline's profit.

The current total cost per passenger is 68.75 USD.

We will round this number up to 70 USD for small expenses such as accommodation costs for flight crews, parking fees, etc.

The remaining 10 USD will be the profit for the airline. It is worth noting that the above calculations are based on the A320 filled with passengers.

Is it expensive to fly? The answer is no , on the contrary it is getting cheaper and cheaper compared to the cost of traveling by car. In addition to flying, it is much faster than other means of transportation and convenience.