aircraft charters invoicing by mile or hour?

[tractor747]

Interested in learning the preferred method of payment for performing charter , by mile or by flight hour and why?

Thanks

[timel]

By miles.

[BobBates]

Either or.

[Redneck_pilot86]

Most smaller companies with fixed wing will do both, at most places I have worked the 702 CARs work will be billed by the hour because it is not necessarily covering miles. 703 work (point to point) is quoted and billed by the mile, because most customers want to know the price before hand. Most places charge direct mileage whether or not the flight can actually travel direct (weather deviations, terrain) and the company eats the extra. Helicopters generally bill by the hour, as their speed can vary significantly on the same run with different loads, especially slinging.

Pilot pay at some places follows this trend, either by the mile, or by the flight hour.

[all_ramped_up]

just one detail; when billing in miles (in my experience) it was always statute miles as well, not nautical.

[Meatservo]

Pilot pay at some places follows this trend, either by the mile, or by the flight hour.

Sorry for the thread drift, but I feel compelled to comment:

This practice (performance-based pay) is something I strongly disagree with. In my opinion, if SMS was a real thing, mileage pay would have been stamped out years ago.

Let the business staff derive their pay based on fleet revenue miles flown, and pay the operations staff a steady wage. For one thing, usually the operations staff are powerless to influence the amount of hours flown, and for another, sometimes pilots are worth their entire years' pay in one minute, just by deciding NOT to fly.

Paying pilots by the hour or by the mile punishes pilots for:

a) Calling in sick when they are unfit to fly
b) making responsible weather decisions
c) the inability of the sales staff to drum up business.
d) grounding unairworthy equipment

I even worked for a rather large and high-profile company (that I have been criticized for mentioning by name) that would not give you your miles if you missed at destination and came home!

It should be illegal. I'm certain pilots and passengers have died due to this practice.

[TeePeeCreeper]

Pilot pay at some places follows this trend, either by the mile, or by the flight hour.

Sorry for the thread drift, but I feel compelled to comment:

This practice (performance-based pay) is something I strongly disagree with. In my opinion, if SMS was a real thing, mileage pay would have been stamped out years ago.

Let the business staff derive their pay based on fleet revenue miles flown, and pay the operations staff a steady wage. For one thing, usually the operations staff are powerless to influence the amount of hours flown, and for another, sometimes pilots are worth their entire years' pay in one minute, just by deciding NOT to fly.

Paying pilots by the hour or by the mile punishes pilots for:

a) Calling in sick when they are unfit to fly
b) making responsible weather decisions
c) the inability of the sales staff to drum up business.
d) grounding unairworthy equipment

I even worked for a rather large and high-profile company (that I have been criticized for mentioning by name) that would not give you your miles if you missed at destination and came home!

It should be illegal. I'm certain pilots and passengers have died due to this practice.

Meatservo,

You expressed my thoughts on the subject well and I concur thoroughly!

All the best,
TPC

[cncpc]

I agree with Meatservo. It's not entirely cut and dried, but I agree.

The economic reasoning behind it from a management standpoint is that fixed salaries create a fixed cost, while base plus mileage shifts a bit towards partial pay on revenue earned.

There is also the fear that if pilots are simply on fixed, they are not motivated to fly more than the bare minimums they can get away with.