Budgets!

Who needs ‘em?

Well, unfortunately, we all do. They are a necessary element in our day-to-day operations.

The mere existence of a budget is not all bad. But, if unforeseen challenges arise that are outside of your control, which create conflict with the goal of meeting your budget, then budgets can quickly become a necessary evil.

Top of the List of Flight Ops Challenges

In a recent study, the Small Flight Department Subcommittee of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) surveyed approximately 200 operators, and found that the number one challenge staring them in the face was budgeting.

Budgeting for your fixed expenses is essentially a non-starter.

But the operational costs create potential for time stealing frustration, just to ‘balance the books’ for each flight.

With fuel costs far outweighing other variable expenses, this element of your daily operations can become quite challenging.

And, with scheduled maintenance costs, and flight crew expenses thrown into the mix, even they are virtually more predictable than your fuel costs.

With the volatile cost of fuel changing on a daily basis due to the price of crude oil fluctuations, it is nearly impossible to predict what your fuel costs will be on any given upcoming flight. This is increasingly difficult the further into the future your flights are scheduled.

And, with the current tensions in the Middle East, one wonders what is going to happen to those prices in the near term. Not only does the price across the board change daily, but the costs across your market area vary quite widely on the same day.

Within the United States, according to Global Aviation Navigator at GlobalAir.com (at the time of this writing), Jet-A across the eight regions of the lower 49, with Hawaii included in Western/Pacific Region, ranged from $4.88 per gallon to $5.54 per gallon. That is a microcosm swing of 13.52%.

Add Alaska, at $6.35 per gallon, and that calculates a variation of 30.12%.

Now, on a macro scale, the oil price spikes. Wow! What a negative effect on your fuel budgeting they create.

Crude Oil Price History

Of course, the ever changing cost of oil is a certainty. Currently, we are by no means near our historical high. But, we don’t have to be, to have even a small increase in oil prices to create a detrimental effect on your operations.

Here is a graph showing the historical price of a barrel of crude since 1946, along with the inflation adjusted price up through February 2019:

Currently, we see ourselves in a relative reprieve. But, no matter the cost of oil, you still have to minimize your fuel costs on all of your flights. Taking things into account such as fuel costs at all stops, landing fees, to tanker or not, and more.

These calculations take substantial time to complete, and with a minor error in calculation, a noticeable change to the make-or-break status of your fuel budget will show. Is there a way that you can increase the efficiency, and accuracy, of these critical calculations?

Something different than what you may be doing right now?

The Challenge

There is a story told over the years that illustrates how, that if we are not careful, we can be lulled to sleep by doing the things the way we always have done them. We keep doing these because, quite frankly they work. Or, at least did at one time. And, with the daily grind of keeping your operations going, it can be challenging to find the time to look for even the possibility of existing options.

The story goes something like this:

There was a little girl helping her mother prepare the evening family meal. The primary course was a roast.

As the mother removed the meat from the refrigerator, she cut off a small section from each end, tossed the severed pieces into the trash, and then placed the remainder into the casserole dish.

The little girl asked, “Mommy, why do you cut the ends off the meat?”

Her mother replied, “Well, that is the way my mother taught me. But, I’ll ask her.”

At the earliest possible time, mother asked grandma the same question.

Grandma replied, “Because it wouldn’t fit into the pan.”

A Bigger Pan

Is there a ‘bigger pan’, a new tool, to help you maximize the savings on your fuel consumption costs? Maybe now, with the oil prices relatively low, would be the time to answer that question.
Surely there must be a different way, a more efficient way.

Technology changes with the times. And, even the times change with technology.

The Ever Present Constant … Change

Take the music industry.

For in-home enjoyment of music, we can look at the development of the 78 rpm record. That then evolved to the 45, then the 33, the 8-track tape.
Ahhh, the 8-track. You know, the one where, even to this day, you might still hear in your head a tune from your favorite tape, which would volume down to zero – click click – as the track changes, then your song volumes up again.

After that, the cassette tape, the CD, and finally streaming.

With every advancement came increasing capacity, in most cases on smaller and smaller platforms, at ever-increasing quality and efficiency. And we went from contact to contactless transfer of data.

The ancestors of the current method of creating written documents include, rock and wood carvings, quill and ink; where if one wanted copies of a document, they had to be hand-written each time. Then came the printing press, with arduous typesetting; each and every letter, space, numeral, jot and tittle, laid into place by hand, being viewed upside-down and backwards.

The same with mathematics. The evolution steps of calculating include, among others, the abacus, slide rule, and the handheld calculator. Again, advancing capacity, speed, and accuracy by multiple factors.

Now, we find that all three of these industries have been virtually replaced by the current state of the evolution of the computer age.

And, with the internet evolving just in the last decade or so to the point where massive amounts of data can be sent, and extracted, from across the world near instantly, our ability to operate our endeavors has opened up vast capability to function most efficiently.

Removing That Sting

With fuel costs creating a double hit on your budgeting, there is a new tool, that larger pan, which has come along to smooth out your fuel planning difficulties.

Now you can reduce waste and stop tossing those ‘ends of the roast’, those extra costs of time and money, into the trash.
Meet FuelerLinx, the most accurate fuel planning and tankering software in business aviation.

FuelerLinx is so simple to use, because it is so advanced. The software and computer perform the multiple mundane calculations for you.

• The program allows you to
• Optimize Flight Operations
• Automate Fuel Purchasing
• Reduce Operating Costs in One Easy to Manage Application.

FuelerLinx has helped hundreds of flight departments save time and money by automating the critical and laborious manual aspects of fuel management budgeting.
Since its beginning FuelerLinx has added multiple features that helped save their customers’ valuable time and money.

Features such as:

• Fuel Planning
• Dispatch
• Tankering
• Flight Planning
• Reporting
• Analytics
• Software Integrations
• Mobile Accessible

Here is what some of FuelerLinx customers had to say:

As a result of using FuelerLinx we have been able to produce a more efficient procedure not only for planning the logistics of each trip but the quoting process, and accounting process have also improved. I have found our entire experience with FuelerLinx to be an asset to our company.

Mark Palmer, President
X8 Aviation LLC

FuelerLinx not only helps us decide the best fuel price, but the best overall FBO experience… they’ve gone above and beyond being a simple “fuel app”. FuelerLinx… allows us to save time on multiple levels of the trip… While it may be possible to measure the dollars and cents we save on fuel with FuelerLinx, it is more invaluable of the amount of time we save as a department from start to finish with each trip thanks to their help.

Matthew Sorace, Charter Coordinator/Maintenance Controller
Cutter Aviation

FuelerLinx is amazing! It paid for itself in the first month for my entire year subscription. The multi-leg tankering calculator saves me valuable time and shows me cost savings instantly. Then the software allows me to keep track of my savings and automatically populate charts to make fuel spend analysis a breeze. Can’t recommend them highly enough.

Kyle Burnett, Chief Pilot & Aviation Manager
Dynamic Healthcare Solutions

Request Your Free Demo

Contact SC AeroTech to schedule your free demo today, and begin to bite back at your fuel budgeting challenges.
(213) 268 1482
info@sc-aerotech.com

SC AeroTech is the leading research and advisory firm focused exclusively on business aviation. As emerging technologies and software platforms unlock some of the biggest value pools for growth opportunities and operational improvements, our clients turn to us for the indispensable insights, advice and tools, that can provide them with the competitive advantage of tomorrow. Our mission is to equip aviation leaders across the globe to make the right decisions and stay ahead of change.