Round trip vs two one-ways: how the math works

When you fly out and back a few days later, there are two ways to buy the trip. The aircraft can wait for you at your destination, which is a round trip, or it can fly home after dropping you off and come back to collect you, which is two one-ways. Which costs less is arithmetic, and the answer changes with the length of your stay.

What you pay for in each case

Round trip: the aircraft waits

You pay for the two flights you are on. While the aircraft sits at your destination, most operators charge a daily minimum, commonly one to two flight hours for each day with little or no flying, plus the crew's hotel, meals and transport for every night away.

Two one-ways: the aircraft goes home

Each one-way normally includes positioning: the empty flight home after the drop-off, and the empty flight back out to collect you. You pay for four legs of flying, two of them empty, but nothing for waiting.

A worked example

Take a light jet based near New York at an illustrative $4,500 an hour, flying Teterboro to Palm Beach, about 2 hours 30 minutes each way. Assume the operator bills one hour for each idle day and $900 a night for the crew's costs.

Before the 7.5% federal excise tax, segment fees and airport fees, which apply to both options. Illustrative figures, not a quote.

In this example the two options cost the same at five nights. Below that, keeping the aircraft is cheaper; above it, sending it home wins, and the gap grows with every extra day. On a long stay, many operators will suggest sending the aircraft home anyway, because a parked jet earns nothing and can fly other trips in the meantime.

The formula is simple enough to do on the back of an envelope. The round trip costs the two occupied legs, plus the daily minimum times the idle days, plus crew costs times the nights. Two one-ways cost the occupied legs plus the same number of empty hours again. Whichever total is lower wins, before taxes and fees that both options share.

What moves the break-even point

• Flight length. Longer flights make the empty legs of two one-ways more expensive, so waiting stays cheaper for longer. On a 50-minute hop such as Van Nuys to Las Vegas, the balance tips toward one-ways within a day or two.
• The daily minimum. An operator that bills two idle hours a day instead of one brings the break-even point forward.
• Crew costs. Expensive destinations in peak season raise the overnight line.
• Where aircraft are based. If a suitable jet is based at your destination, the return may need no positioning at all, and two one-ways from different operators can beat both options.
• Peak dates. Around holidays, operators may not want an aircraft parked for days, and their pricing shows it.

A longer flight changes the answer

Run the same numbers for New York to Aspen, about 4 hours 30 minutes in a midsize jet at an illustrative $5,800 an hour. Two one-ways now mean four legs of 4.5 hours, or $104,400, while a round trip costs $52,200 in flying plus the waiting costs. With a one-hour daily minimum and $900 a night for the crew, the round trip stays cheaper until roughly the eighth night. Longer flights make empty legs expensive, so the aircraft that waits remains the better deal for longer.

One caveat at Aspen: in peak ski weeks, parking at the airport can be limited, and a waiting aircraft may have to reposition to an alternate such as Eagle County or Rifle. That adds flying to the round trip, so ask where the aircraft will wait.

Taxes and fees apply to both

The 7.5% federal excise tax applies to the amount paid either way, so it scales both totals without changing which is lower. Airport fees can differ slightly: a round trip may pay parking at your destination for each night the aircraft stays, while two one-ways pay an extra set of landing and handling fees at the home base. On most trips those differences are small next to the flying itself.

Same-day round trips

A day trip is usually the best value in charter. There are no crew overnights, and a full day's flying normally exceeds the daily minimum, so you pay mostly for the flying itself. Watch the crew's duty day: an early start and a late return can run past legal limits, especially with a long wait in between. If that happens, the operator will need a second crew or an overnight, and the quote should say so in advance.

When the cheapest answer is neither

Sometimes the best price is an empty leg in one direction and a regular one-way in the other, or two one-ways from two operators based at opposite ends of your trip. These combinations take more work to find and confirm, but on busy routes such as New York to Florida in winter they come up often.

The trade-off is certainty. An empty leg's time is set by someone else's trip and can be cancelled if that trip changes. Two operators means two sets of terms. For a trip with a fixed return date, a round trip on one aircraft is simpler, and simplicity has value.

Questions to ask before you choose

• What daily minimum applies, and does it start on the first idle day?
• Are crew overnight costs a fixed amount or billed as incurred?
• If the aircraft goes home, is the return confirmed for my date and time?
• What happens to the price if my return date moves?

How we quote it

When your dates sit near the break-even point, we price both versions and show the math, including the daily minimums and crew costs the operator will charge. You choose with all the numbers in front of you, and nothing is booked until you sign the charter agreement.

Related

• Charter pricing explained, from the hourly rate up
• International charter costs: what changes
• Estimate a 1.5, 3 or 5 hour trip