From the existing guide library. Pricing, loan examples and source dates may be historical. Use current written quotes for your purchase. The worksheets use the shared calculation method.

Pilatus PC-12 Ownership Budget: Fixed Cost versus Hourly Cost

The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine turboprop. Pilatus lists maximum cruise speed of 290 KTAS and maximum altitude of 30,000 feet for the current PC-12 family. This page is the budgeting method: separate fixed costs (hangar, insurance, training, engine program) from direct operating cost (fuel, maintenance). Dividing a full year of fixed costs by 100 hours produces a misleading “hourly” number and is not a charter rate. Do not use a single annual dollar total from an unsourced table. Build the year from quotes. The NGX spec sheet, with the same Pilatus performance figures, is on the NGX page.

Quick Specs: Pilatus PC-12

Specification PC-12
Engine 1 × Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P (1,200 shp)
Fuel Burn 70–85 gal/hr cruise
Cruise Speed 220–260 mph
Service Ceiling 30,000 ft
Useful Load 3,200–3,600 lbs
Seats 10
Range 1,600–1,950 nm

TL;DR: Pilatus PC-12 Annual Operating Cost Summary

  • Fixed costs: $42,000–$58,000/year (insurance $8,500–$12,000, hangar $18,000–$24,000, annuals $10,000–$14,000, crew)
  • Variable costs at 100 hours: $113,000–$137,000/year (Jet-A fuel, oils, engine reserves)
  • Total at 100 hours: $155,000–$195,000/year (~$1,550–$1,950/hour)
  • Finance a $5,500,000 PC-12: Add $62,000/month ($744,000/year) at 6.5% over 12 years
  • At 50 hours: ~$98,500–$126,500/year (~$1,970–$2,530/hour)
  • At 200 hours: ~$227,000–$283,000/year (~$1,135–$1,415/hour)

Single Turboprop Utility Operating Costs

Fixed Costs

  • Insurance: $8,500–$12,000/year for $2,000,000–$2,800,000 hull
  • Hangar: $18,000–$24,000/year (utility turboprop facility)
  • Annual inspection: $10,000–$14,000 labor (mission capability)
  • Crew training/proficiency: $4,000–$6,000/year

Variable Costs (per flight hour)

  • Jet-A fuel: 77.5 gal/hr × $5.50/gal = ~$426/hour
  • Oil and lubricants: $10–$14/hour
  • Engine reserve: $19–$24/hour ($70K ÷ 3,500 TBO)
  • Mission equipment: $60–$90/hour
  • Avionics/systems: $75–$110/hour
  • Landing fees: $50–$200/landing

Jet Fuel & Operating Economics

Fuel Cost by Hours

Annual Hours Gallons Jet-A Cost @ $5.50/gal $/Hour
50 3,875 $21,312 $426
100 7,750 $42,625 $426
150 11,625 $63,937 $426
200 15,500 $85,250 $426

Maintenance & Engine Reserves

Pratt & Whitney PT6A-67P Engine

  • PT6A-67P: 3,500 hours TBO
  • Overhaul cost: $75,000–$95,000
  • Engine reserve: $85,000 ÷ 3,500 = $24.29/hour
  • Reliability: Proven turboprop with excellent support

Mission Turboprop Maintenance

  • Mission system checks: $4,000–$6,000/year
  • Hydraulic system: $2,000–$3,000/year
  • Landing gear inspection: $1,500–$2,500/year
  • Cargo system maintenance: $1,000–$1,500/year
  • Budget: $110–$155/hour for all maintenance

Insurance & Storage

Turboprop Insurance

  • $2,000,000 hull: $8,500–$10,500/year
  • $2,800,000 hull: $11,000–$14,000/year
  • Mission operations: +25–40% premium

Storage Costs

Option Monthly Annual
Utility Turboprop Hangar $1,500–$2,000 $18,000–$24,000
Tie-Down $400–$700 $4,800–$8,400

Annual Ownership Scenarios

Operating Cost (Not Financed)

Hours/Year Fixed Variable Total $/Hour
50 $50,000 $56,000 $106,000 $2,120
100 $50,000 $112,000 $162,000 $1,620
200 $50,000 $224,000 $274,000 $1,370

Total Cost of Ownership (With Financing)

Assume $5,500,000 Pilatus PC-12, 6.5% APR, 12 years = $744,000/year debt service.

Hours/Year Operating Finance Total $/Hour
100 $162,000 $744,000 $906,000 $9,060
200 $274,000 $744,000 $1,018,000 $5,090

Financing the Pilatus PC-12

  • Purchase price: $4,500,000–$6,500,000
  • Down payment: 15–20%
  • Loan amount: $3,900,000–$5,600,000
  • Term: 12–15 years
  • APR: 5.75–7.0% (2025)
  • Monthly payment: $58,000–$98,000

Lender Requirements: 650+ credit, mission experience, $500,000+ annual revenue, business plan, hull insurance $2M+. Lenders like JakenAviation support mission aircraft financing.

Pilatus PC-12 vs. Competitors

  • vs. King Air C90: PC-12 single-engine; King Air twin-engine and larger
  • vs. Cessna Grand Caravan: PC-12 pressurized; Caravan unpressurized single

Get prequalified for mission aircraft financing »

Sources: Pilatus Aircraft Specs | AOPA Owner Reports | FAA TCDS

Operating-cost worksheet

Defaults are round assumptions, not a shop quote. AOPA’s worksheet splits fixed costs (insurance, hangar, the annual), direct costs (fuel and maintenance), and a reserve (overhaul cost divided by hours to TBO). Their old teaching example used half the hourly fuel bill as a maintenance starting point. Type your own gph and prices.

Stop dividing one year’s costs by too few hours

The expensive mistake on a Pilatus PC 12 is to take insurance, hangar, and an annual, divide by 80 or 100 hours, and call the result the cost of flying. Those bills arrive if you fly or not. AOPA’s operating-cost worksheet treats them as fixed costs, then adds direct costs that do move with hours: fuel, oil, and maintenance. A reserve for the engine or propeller is a third bucket, optional in their sheet and not optional in real life if you intend to keep the aircraft through an overhaul. The worksheet on this page follows that split. Any annual dollar range printed higher up on this page, if it does not cite an invoice or AOPA, is an illustration. Do not repeat it as a quote.

Fuel is a multiplication, not a rumor

AOPA’s instruction is price per gallon times gallons per hour. The gallons per hour belong to the way you actually fly the Pilatus PC 12, not to the brochure cruise at the most flattering altitude. Oil is the same idea: price per quart times quarts per hour. Type both into the worksheet. If you do not know burn, leave a conservative guess and replace it after five tanks of your own notes. A blog’s “cost per hour” that hides the burn and the fuel price is not usable, because you cannot tell which assumption broke.

The maintenance starting point AOPA actually published

For a first pass, AOPA equates routine engine and airframe maintenance, on an hourly basis, to about half the hourly fuel and oil bill, and says to adjust it once you have your own invoices. The checkbox on the worksheet does that and nothing fancier. Turn it off and type a maintenance figure when you have one. A separate AOPA line for avionics is 5 percent of the avionics’ replacement value per 500 hours. That is a starting point from their sheet, not a prediction that your Pilatus PC 12 panel will fail on schedule. Unsupported radios cost more than that formula, because the fix is often a replacement, not a repair.

The overhaul reserve is a division

AOPA’s method is the shop’s overhaul or remanufacture price divided by hours left until the published TBO, not divided by the full TBO if the engine is already mid-time. Their sheet walks through a Cessna 172 example: $17,000 over 2,000 hours is $8.50 an hour, while a $27,000 reman with 900 hours left is $30 an hour. Those dollars are the example in the article, and they are not a 2026 quote for a Pilatus PC 12. The arithmetic is what you copy. Propeller overhaul, in the same AOPA sheet, is penciled at about $0.25 an hour for a fixed-pitch prop and about $1 an hour for a constant-speed prop, with more for a three-blade. Treat those as historical placeholders and ask a prop shop.

Sources