This is the time of year flying schools reveal their 2024 pricing, if not already released. As part of our corporate services we prepare analysis of the total market within the UK and use that along with all other variables (fuel, flight instructors etc) to work out average rises across the whole UK industry.

Factors

Biggest factors influencing pricing in the UK

Administrations

With the collapse of Tayside Aviation there is now only 1 Commercial Training Centre in Scotland. Tayside put around 60-70 students into the market immediately which was responded to by schools of a similar size by an immediate uplift in prices (10-20% rise). This opportunistic rise is something to bear in mind when future schools go into administration (see later posts).

The administration of FTA Global also caused a similar shift on the south coast. With lots of schools in close proximity this rise was lower.

Further administrations are to be expected in 2024, with 1 school operating a high debt to income ratio and a high student/twin engine ratio (more later). We will see more opportunistic price rises when this happens.

Fuel

Fuel prices stabilised in Q2-3 of 2023 but a rise has started again. AVGAS and UL91 ‘pump’ prices across the UK have remained fairly stable for now but as winter kicks in we can expect around a 15% rise within the first quarter of 2024.

Insurance

As most legacy training providers are operating aircraft older than 30 years parts are now becoming harder to source. This has led to a higher insurance premium across individual and fleet rates. The average rise in insurance will add around £7-10p/h on flying times in 2024. Schools that use modern aircraft will have a higher insurance due to the higher value but lower maintenance should offset any rise.

Maintenance

Some key parts for legacy aircraft are getting harder to source which is effecting insurance (above) and maintenance pricing. With inflation remaining high across the UK and staff/utility costs rising there will be a higher maintenance contribution made per flying hour. A new aircraft would currently be around £36 per flying hour, a legacy aircraft is around £90-110p/h.

Taxation

Flight training is still likely to attract VAT for the foreseeable future, this is something that has been lobbied for for a number of years. The impact of minimum wage rises (around 10% across the UK) should have a minimal impact as instructors pay is usually per flying hour if they are contracted in.

Analysis

If you are looking to invest in flight training in 2024 it pays to be informed ahead of schedule. You should be making contact with a number of schools, either those local to you or those with lower accommodation costs if you do wish to move closer to a training centre. Make sure your pricing includes

• Landing fees (we’ve saved some students over £6500 on landing fees alone by moving to another provider)

• Fuel surcharge - This is creeping into training contracts across the UK and has been adding around £30-50 per hour on to the ‘ticket price’ of training.

• Instructors - Bizarrely we have advised a number of students who attended 3 different schools who have been paying an additional on the sticker price of training per hour for their instructor. 1 of these students was overcharged over £9000 in total compared with the quoted price.

Our team are here to help if you need advice on choosing a provider. We are best placed in the market to give independent advice on training. Book a training consultation to discuss anything to do with flight training in the UK