Private vs. Commercial with Advanced Notice

In previous examples, I've detailed last minute trips which certainly favor general aviation - so what about advanced notice?

Well, with 21 days of advanced notice the one way fairs on Southwest for a flight between Dallas and Houston are: $151 for business select, $136 for anytime, or $49 for wanna get away. For my airplane, the cost is $66 each way for up to 4 people (including the pilot).

So, if you want to go cheap you can get to Houston from Dallas at a lower cost, but with a lot of restrictions. The anytime fair from SWA certainly eliminates that problem, but then the cost escalates dramatically. For two people on a business trip the price breaks down thusly -

Southwest anytime fair (round trip) x 2 = $544.00
Taxes on the tickets = $ 36.18

Total 580.18


Airplane Gas (33 gallons round trip) = $132.00

Total 132.00

Not to mention that you still end up saving 1 hour and 10 minutes of travel time, which under this scenario is multiplied by 2 and then further multiplied by the salary of these folks.

You can slice the stats many ways, but given the right plane for the mission a private individual can be faster and cheaper than public transit.

Clear skies and tailwinds!
Mike