When someone remarks on your new venture with a comment which goes something like “Cor blimey, that’ll cost more to run than your car”, your immediate thought is “Well I flippin’ hope so otherwise my car seriously needs replacing!” But it did get me thinking…
On a purely cost-driven, cold calculation of getting from ‘a’ to ‘b’, how does flying compare to driving? I was curious to see what the difference would be for a trip to – yes you’ve guessed it – Sandown, Isle of Wight (until I’ve done more trips, that’s the only reference I have)
So I worked it out and guess what? There was a fairly significant difference. No surprise there.
So then I looked at the time saved which, as anyone working out the economics of doing anything knows, also needs to be taken into account. These are the findings:
| By car and ferry, taking the shortest route with no traffic (using Google Maps at about midnight) | approx 6hrs 40 mins |
| By air, from flight planning through to putting Charlie to bed at the end of the day | approx 3hrs 40 mins |
But the time saved doesn’t really count here, because if you’re on minimum wage it’s not going to make much of a difference whereas for a senior partner in a London law firm…. well actually, they’d have their own private jet.
Anyway, even without the three hours saved on travel time, the fact that we weren’t sitting in a car, stuck on the motorway in all the traffic – now that’s priceless!
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The graphic below isn’t a paid ad or affiliate but I added it to bring this unusual attraction to your attention. As a visitor to Sandown you might find you really need to go….
A Pilot's Companion 