Expires in hours
Where the Aircraft Is Sitting Right Now
Two operators can quote the same trip and differ enormously, with neither of them overcharging. Nearly always the difference is where the aircraft was standing when the question was asked.
- What the answer is
- The field an operator's aircraft is at today, and therefore how far it has to fly with nobody aboard before the trip starts.
- How long it stays true
- Hours. An aircraft that is working moves, and the answer moves with it.
- What happens when it stops being true
- The positioning changes, so the price changes. A quote assembled on Monday can be wrong on Wednesday without anybody behaving badly.
Positioning, in one paragraph
An aircraft has to be where the passengers are before it can carry them. If it is not, it flies there empty, and that flight costs the operator crew, fuel and hours whether anybody is aboard or not.
That cost lands in the quote. It is why the same trip on the same day can come back at very different numbers from operators who are both being straight with you.
Why this is the answer that most often surprises people
Because it has nothing to do with the trip itself. The distance being flown, the number of people, the time of day: none of that changes between two operators. Where their aircraft happens to be standing does, completely.
Somebody comparing two quotes and assuming the cheaper operator is cutting something is usually comparing two different amounts of empty flying.
Why it expires so fast
A working aircraft is somewhere different tomorrow. An operator that was well placed on Monday may have sent that aircraft across the country by Wednesday, and the operator that was badly placed may now be sitting at your field.
That is the whole reason this site is organized around shelf life rather than around aircraft or routes.
What this desk does about it
Asks several operators rather than one, on the same day, and reports the answers as a range with the date they were given. It does not average them, does not pick a favorite, and does not present the cheapest as though it were still available a week later.
Answers that expire in hours, one of three shelf lives in what a quote rests on