No-show cost calculator
What an empty slot actually costs once the instructor is paid and the airframe sat still. It runs in your browser, there is no sign-up, and nothing you type is sent to us.
No-shows cost you
$100,040/year
$8,337 a month, from 374 empty slots a year at $267.20 each.
What one no-show costs
- Lost contribution2h of revenue, less the fuel and reserves you didn't spend
- $250.00
- Instructor paid anyway2h of wage against no revenue
- $84.00
- Recovered by backfill20% of empty slots taken by somebody else
- −$66.80
- Net per no-show
- $267.20
What the rate is worth
One percentage point off your no-show rate is worth $12,505 a year. That is the number to take to a staff meeting, and it is usually larger than the fee revenue anybody is arguing about.
| No-show rate | Slots/year | Cost/year | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 0 | $0.00 | $100,040 |
| 2% | 94 | $25,010 | $75,030 |
| 4% | 187 | $50,020 | $50,020 |
| 6% | 281 | $75,030 | $25,010 |
| 8% (yours) | 374 | $100,040 | — |
| 10% | 468 | $125,050 | — |
| 12% | 562 | $150,060 | — |
| 15% | 702 | $187,574 | — |
| 20% | 936 | $250,099 | — |
How to read the result
The instructor is the number, not the aeroplane
A no-show saves you the fuel
The aeroplane stayed put, so you did not buy the gas or put the hour on the engine. That is why this figure is lower than the rate you thought you lost, and why quoting the full rate makes the whole argument easy to dismiss.
But the wage is gone either way
A CFI paid for a block nobody flew is money out with nothing against it. At a school on guaranteed blocks this one line is usually larger than everything else put together, and it is the line most people leave out of the estimate entirely.
Backfill is the cheapest fix
Every slot somebody else takes recovers the whole contribution, with no awkward conversation at the desk. Moving backfill from 20% to 40% is usually worth more than any fee, and it is a scheduling problem rather than a policy one.
Fees recover less than you think
Put your real collection rate in, not 100%. Once the waived and the never-chased come out, a fee is worth a fraction of the loss. Its value is in changing behaviour, which shows up as a lower rate in the table rather than as fee revenue.
The awkward follow-up
Do you know your actual no-show rate?
Most schools guess, and the guess is low, because the 06:00 cancellation for an 08:00 lesson gets filed as a cancellation rather than as the empty slot it was. The rate is the input this whole calculation turns on.
SkyFSBookings records what was booked, what flew and what was released too late to refill, so the figure in that box is one you can look up rather than estimate.
Start tracking the slotsFree for one aircraft, no card, no expiry.
- The practical side of bringing the rate down is in reducing no-show bookings.
- You need the airframe's variable cost per hour for the box above. The rental rate calculator works it out from fuel, oil and reserves.
- Empty slots and utilisation are the same problem seen twice: the fleet management guide covers what the hours do to every other number.
- Already running on something else? See what moving across involves.
What operators ask about this
No-show costs, answered plainly
- Why is this lower than the rental rate I lost?
- Because you did not spend the money that an hour of flying costs. The aircraft stayed in the hangar, so the fuel was not burned, the engine did not move toward its overhaul, and the tyres did not wear. What an empty slot costs is the contribution it would have made: revenue minus the costs that only happen when the aeroplane moves. Quoting the full rate overstates it, and an overstated number is one your instructors will quietly stop believing.
- Then why is the annual figure so large?
- Because of the instructor, not the aircraft. A CFI paid for a two-hour block that nobody flew is wages out with no revenue against them, and at a school paying guaranteed blocks that single line is usually bigger than everything else combined. Switch the instructor question from "paid anyway" to "flight time only" and watch the annual number roughly halve. That is the real finding here: your no-show cost is mostly a function of how you pay your instructors.
- Should I charge a no-show fee?
- The arithmetic says a fee recovers less than people expect, because the fees you waive at the desk or never chase do not count. Put your real collection rate in rather than 100% and the credit shrinks fast. The stronger lever is almost always the no-show rate itself: the table shows what one percentage point is worth per year, and it is usually a larger number than any plausible fee revenue. A fee that changes behaviour is worth more than a fee that raises money.
- What counts as a no-show rather than a cancellation?
- For this calculation, any booking that neither flies nor frees the slot in time for somebody else to take it. A student who cancels eight days out costs you nothing and should not be in the number. A student who cancels at 06:00 for an 08:00 lesson is a no-show in everything but name, which is why the input asks for the rate of bookings that do not fly and do not refill rather than for your cancellation policy.
- Does it account for the student who eventually quits?
- No, and that is the largest thing it leaves out. A student who no-shows repeatedly is usually on their way to stopping altogether, and the lifetime value of a lost primary student dwarfs the slot. This tool prices the empty slot only. Treat the result as the floor on what no-shows cost you, not the whole of it.
- Do you keep the numbers I enter?
- No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent to us or stored. Your rates, your instructor pay and your no-show rate are nobody else’s business.