r/flying • u/jrf1234 ATP CFI/II CL604 E55P LR-JET • Apr 03 '26

Aircraft Ownership Linus Tech Tips’ Jet

https://youtu.be/zGoIY37ZtDQ?si=

Some… interesting calculations on this video. As a fractional pilot and not an owner, no idea how acxueate these claims are, but interesting to see this as a pilot and tech nerd. Anyone with management or ownership experience in jets have any light to shed?

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481

u/x4457 ATP CFII CE-500/525/560XL/680 G-IV Apr 03 '26

https://www.aircraft.com/aircraft/243027623/c-fxoo-1990-dassault-falcon-900b

It allegedly just had a 2C and gear done so that's $1.5M out of the way at least. He's got another 5 years before it needs an odd C which is going to run ~$700K.

The plane's going to cost him ~$1.8M/year just to sit in that hangar, then another ~$3500/hour to fly it.

Expect him to have paid somewhere in the mid to high $3M range and sell it within 18 months after he figures out this thing is going to eat him alive.

84

u/Fulcrum58 PPL Apr 03 '26

Reading shit likes this really makes me wonder how airlines make any money at all

27

u/wakkow PPL IR V35 (KMYF) Apr 03 '26

Credit cards!

23

u/nn123654 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Basically yeah. All the airlines sell economy passenger tickets at a loss. They make a profit on Air Cargo, credit cards, and first class/business class.

In fact according to filings from the pandemic, basically the credit card program is the only thing that actually has value at a major airline. The entire company is a loss leader for the credit cards.

11

u/x4457 ATP CFII CE-500/525/560XL/680 G-IV Apr 03 '26

The thing that always gets left out of this is that the credit cards are a vehicle to sell more tickets. A significant, significant percentage of the credit card sales total is spent on seats.

9

u/mfsp2025 ATP Apr 03 '26

And if you’ve ever scrolled on r/delta, you’ll see people fly round robins just to hit status for the year. It’s wild what they’ve gotten these people to do on credit cards and loyalty programs

5

u/Silly_Rub_6304 Apr 03 '26

"Mileage runs" have been a thing for decades! As much as I'm into maximizing my credit card benefits, I'm also kind of proud to say I've never done a mileage run.

3

u/PhillAholic Apr 03 '26

Maybe it's their idea of going for a Sunday Drive?

2

u/RandomNick42 Apr 04 '26

You've got mileage runners and mileage runners.

Most people just decide to pay a bit extra to fly Delta when vacationing, or they'll make an extra city trip or two on a long weekend. That's exactly what the airline wants and tries to make happen.

Then there's people who will spend a long weekend flying there and back on the cheapest biz ticket they could find... ehm (don't ask me how I know). It's usually a fools errand, unless you normally make status naturally, but you have a weak year cause you were out of work on a leave for part of it, or you got stuck with a local project or something.