Flight School and Flying Club Software for Business
Impact on Aircraft Utilization & Profitability
The desire of the owners and operators alike of Flight Schools and other aviation related businesses is to increase their respective Aircraft Utilization figures. The fact of the matter is, there are not enough Pilots and Student Pilots at times to occupy the aircraft and reach desired target utilization for profitability. Based on certain assumptions and calculations, Aircraft generally “break-even” at approximately 20 hours of utilization. This is considering the Aircraft’s operating costs only (Fuel, Maintenance, Overhaul, Parking, & Insurance) – therefore, it does not contain any other overhead associated with maintaining an office, staff, certification, etc. Other costs would push the theoretical break-even point for an aviation business significantly higher.
While workers generally work for their employers a total of 8 hours per day (or more), Operators are happy if an Airplane works for them on average 3 hours per day for a total of 90 hours per month. That equates to 2 local flights or 1 typical cross country flight. A very low bar. Increasing Aircraft Utilization slightly to 4 hours per day or 120 hours per Month increases Net Margin by an estimated 30%. Therefore, even small improvements can have an incredible impact on the bottom line. At Holdshort.com, we are keenly aware of the painful reality faced in aviation. We’ve had many new customers, Flight Schools, Flying Clubs, etc., who signed up, only to shutter their doors months later due to lack of profitability. Some do not even make it past our 60 day free trial period! Aviation is a tough business with razor thin margins. The challenge we all face is surmounting both high fixed costs and high variable costs! The only answer is to generate more business, and increase the gross profits. The bottom line is – Aircraft Operators need to get their Aircraft scheduled more frequently by more pilots.
Having just any old online scheduling software system is good to encourage bookings, but it is not good enough. The business owner needs more marketing firepower. That is, something to drive more business for you. We are working on that. We believe we have found the solution to generate what amounts to “free” advertising and attract greater interest in your business AND get more people attracted to Aviation as both a career and a hobby. If our ideas deliver you one, just one additional flight hour per month than your current baseline, we have paid for you back for the cost of our system. But what if we are able to drive 20 or 30 more? Than we are providing an incredible return on your investment, which we would be more than happy to do. For more information, please contact us. We would love to discuss this with you.