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By Bjorn Fehrm

May 11, 2023, © Leeham News: In our series about the viability of the business plans for small airliners (nine to 50 seats), we have covered how energy/fuel consumption and maintenance scales with the size of the airliner.

The cost factor we examine today is the cost of using the airport and airways infrastructure. Airlines pay for landing plus parking at airports and for using their passenger facilities. The airlines also pay for using the Air Traffic Control (ATC) infrastructure when flying the routes.

Each airport and national airway system have their own fee structures. We check how these scale with aircraft size.

Figure 1. The TECNAM P2021 piston prop airliner is also offered in an electric version called P-Volt. Source: TECNAM.

Summary:

• Airway fees scale differently per transported passenger to the airport fees.
• Overall, airport and airway fees are not proportional to carried passengers on a route.