Branch Office Costs

Community:

What determines how much the branch office cost will be for a specific flight as listed in the cost breakdown? I gather larger airlines, which I’m not, pay more for their branch offices, and I also understand a flight arriving into your hub costs more for the branch office.

However, one of my planes, an ERJ-140LR, had a route which was only seeing 60-70% load, so after tweaking a few things and not see a big change, I decided to scrap the route and try for one that would be profitable. The original route when flying into my hub cost $217 for the branch office. The new route, which merely replaced the old, now costs $761.

Is it where the plane is flying from, the time of day, the fact that the original route was created the day my company was founded and now I’m a few days in with a small, but profitable, company?

Thanks for all your help, I appreciate it!

Joe

These are indirect costs - that means the costs per week broken down for a flight. I don't have the exact formula right now, but you don't pay it for each flight.

sk,

Thank you for your answer, I appreciate the quick response. It has, however, lead to a few other questions.

I understand from your answer that branch office costs, like the costs of leasing and maintanance, are divided proportionally among the flights and not paid with each depature. However, unlike leasing and maintenance, I see no line item dedicated to ‘branch office fees’ on either the Income Statement or the Balance Sheet. How am I to know how much money my company is spending from week-to-week on branch offices, unless I manually add the proportional cost of each flight to arrive at the total? Where is this fee being deducted on a weekly basis? I thought maybe the ‘week-end closing costs’ would include it, but that cost is identical to the salary total listed on my staff page.

You mentioned indirect costs in your answer. Of the five ‘indirect costs’ listed for each flight, I understand how the leasing and maintenance costs are calculated. But under Crew, is the cost shown the proportional cost for my entire staff, which is to say all positions listed on the staff page, or simply for the pilots, flight attendants, and pursers?

How about Management? Is this the proportional cost of specific staff, and if so, which positions? Or is this fee something completely unrelated to staff? If it’s unrelated to staff, where is this cost deducted on a weekly basis, as there’s no line item to indicate the weekly total on the Income Statement or Balance Sheet.

I realize this may seem trivial, especially for large airlines who are making hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions, of dollars a day in profit, but for a small airline like mine, where a few hundred dollars is the difference between a profitable route and not, it matters.

Thanks for your help and support,

Joe

Of the indirect costs on the flight detail page, maintenance is paid out at the end of every maintenance period, whilst leasing and everything else is paid weekly. Management, office, and crew costs are lumped together as the weekly closing expenses. The information page for each office gives the staffing details for ground staff.