Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:41 am
#1597101
Building on the 'future of airfields' thread ... this got me thinking about what would be the economics of establishing a grass strip somewhere. E.g. imagine you ran a nice country hotel / spa / restaurant / golf course / conference centre and wanted to add an airfield to the site.
Assuming the neighbouring land is arable land, a bit of Googling suggests ball-park costs are £6k per acre to buy, or £150 per annum per acre to rent.
Assume that you'd want a 700m runway to get four seaters comfortably in/out with an overnight bag, a bit of room for parking and taxying .... perhaps 40 - 50 acres needed?
So perhaps £250k to buy, or £7.5k per annum to rent.
If you'd already got a golf course, you've probably already got the people/kit to maintain a grass runway - but if not perhaps £2k - £3k per annum to cut (based on what I pay to have playing fields cut!).
Depending on existing state of the ground, perhaps a one-off £3k to level/seed it?
There's probably some costs for insurance - no idea? Another £2k per annum??
Does anyone know if this is roughly in the right ball-park - seems to be suggesting that you could establish a good sized airstrip for a cost/opportunity cost of around £10k - £15k per annum?
You might get 100 - 150 visiting flights per season .... if you go with a £10 landing fee - you've covered 10% of your costs.
If 30 of the visiting flights stayed overnight - you might have £100 profit margin on an overnight package .... so another £3000 .... a few meals in the restaurant and a bit of coffee/cake might make another £1000.
Conference centres that can offer something a bit non-standard can command a premium for corporate away days / team building events - so perhaps a few extra £k there.
Not compelling, but not out of the question??
Assuming the neighbouring land is arable land, a bit of Googling suggests ball-park costs are £6k per acre to buy, or £150 per annum per acre to rent.
Assume that you'd want a 700m runway to get four seaters comfortably in/out with an overnight bag, a bit of room for parking and taxying .... perhaps 40 - 50 acres needed?
So perhaps £250k to buy, or £7.5k per annum to rent.
If you'd already got a golf course, you've probably already got the people/kit to maintain a grass runway - but if not perhaps £2k - £3k per annum to cut (based on what I pay to have playing fields cut!).
Depending on existing state of the ground, perhaps a one-off £3k to level/seed it?
There's probably some costs for insurance - no idea? Another £2k per annum??
Does anyone know if this is roughly in the right ball-park - seems to be suggesting that you could establish a good sized airstrip for a cost/opportunity cost of around £10k - £15k per annum?
You might get 100 - 150 visiting flights per season .... if you go with a £10 landing fee - you've covered 10% of your costs.
If 30 of the visiting flights stayed overnight - you might have £100 profit margin on an overnight package .... so another £3000 .... a few meals in the restaurant and a bit of coffee/cake might make another £1000.
Conference centres that can offer something a bit non-standard can command a premium for corporate away days / team building events - so perhaps a few extra £k there.
Not compelling, but not out of the question??