Cost of flight (per km)

We all the talk about discount airlines I was looking for information on actual costs. I found the following airline costs breakdown which is interesting, i think:

Cost per available seat Kilometer is around A$0.08/km ($80 per 1,000km). This suggests that a flight from Perth to Sydney costs around $290 for the airline. (assuming 3,500 km).

Obviously all airlines are a little different with different cost structures, and many of these costs do not vary with the volume of flight, short flights will be more expensive per km that long ones etc.

The breakdown by component is something like:

• Fuel 28%,
• Operations costs 40%,
• Finance related 12%,
• sales, marketing and overhead 20%

When I look up flights on Tiger airways I often get a revenue of around $80/1,000 km less for the deals and more for the popular flights. If this is true it will be all about how full the planes are. Reasonably full, Tiger will do well and make money. An important dynamic is that most of these costs are fixed so discounting below $80/1,000 km makes sense to fill seats in the short time but not in the long term (this is the bane and joy of the airline industry)

Need to think about Co2 emissions.......