How much does it cost to rent a plane? Hourly rates at 20 flight schools and FBOs

Renting a plane means paying an hourly rate for an aircraft you fly yourself, usually after a checkout flight in that type (how to rent a plane walks through the steps). What that hour costs depends on the type, the place and what the rate includes. We read the published rental rates of 20 flight schools, FBOs and rental operators — 15 in the United States, two in the United Kingdom, two in Germany and one in the Netherlands — on their own websites on 20 October 2026, and put them next to what a flying club charges its members and what the same hour costs the aircraft's owner.

Short answer: renting a Cessna 172 in the United States costs $139 to $263 an hour at the standard rate, fuel included at most operators; the median of the cheapest 172 at each of 11 operators is $184. A Cessna 152 rents for $105 to $187 (median $155), a Piper PA-28 for $139 to $255 (median $172), and a Cirrus SR20 for $240 to $450 (some dry). In Europe a Cessna 172 rents for €196 to €275, or £215 to £260 (the £260 per tacho hour). A member of a US flying club pays $94 to $175 an hour for a comparable aircraft (four of six clubs per tach hour), plus monthly dues.

What a Cessna 172 costs to rent, per hour

United States, 11 operators · median of the cheapest 172 each lists: $184

• Wisconsin Aviation · Madison, Wisconsin$139–$159
• AeroDynamic Aviation · San Jose, California · fuel surcharge possible$140.80–$154
• The Flight School Inc. · Spring, Texas · plus a fuel surcharge$155
• Elizabethtown Flying Service · Elizabethtown, Kentucky$160
• Orlandi Flight Center · Blairstown, New Jersey$179–$209
• Journeys Aviation · Boulder, Colorado$184–$198
• Long Island Aviators · Farmingdale, New York$190–$209
• Aces High Aviation · Long Beach, California$190–$200
• Kachemak Bay Flying Service · Temple, Texas · fuel not stated$195
• St. Charles Flying Service · St. Charles, Missouri$199.30–$231.30
• Regal Air · Everett, Washington$250–$263

Germany and the Netherlands, incl. VAT

• Wings over Holland · Lelystad · flight time only · plus a fuel surcharge€196
• Inflight Charter · Manching, Bavaria · flight time only€229
• Ostseeflug · Barth, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern · block time€230–€275

United Kingdom

• Academy Aviation · North Weald, Essex · block time · fuel not stated£215
• Fenland Flying School · Holbeach St Johns, Lincolnshire · per tacho hour · fuel not stated£260

What renting a Cessna 172 costs in the United States

Eleven of the 15 US operators rent out a Cessna 172. The cheapest standard rates are at Wisconsin Aviation in Madison ($139 for a Cessna 172, $159 for a 172S) and AeroDynamic Aviation in San Jose ($140.80 for a 172M); the dearest at Regal Air in Everett, Washington, where a 172 with a Garmin G3X panel is $263 and its cheapest 172 is $250. Six of the eleven start between $179 and $199.30. The spread inside one operator is the panel and the engine: at Journeys Aviation in Boulder a 172P is $184, a 172N $187 and a 172S with a G3X and autopilot $198; at Orlandi Flight Center a 172K with round dials is $179 and the same model with a glass cockpit $209.

Only four of the US pages give a date for their rates: Journeys Aviation ("as of June 10, 2026"), Regal Air ("Effective July 1st, 2026"), St. Charles Flying Service ("Effective April 1, 2026") and Long Island Aviators ("Effective September 1, 2024"). Clipper Aviation's rate sheet sits in a folder from November 2025. A rate without a date may be older than it looks, so ask before you plan a trip around it.

Cessna 152, PA-28, DA40 and Cirrus: rates by type

A two-seat Cessna 152 is the cheapest aircraft to rent, from $105 an hour at Wisconsin Aviation to $187 at Regal Air. A Piper PA-28 Warrior or Archer costs about the same as a Cessna 172 at the same operator: $139 to $155 at Wisconsin Aviation, $155 to $175 at The Flight School Inc. in Spring, Texas, $184 to $199 at Long Island Aviators and $255 for a Warrior at Regal Air.

Rental rate per hour by type, United States

Aircraft	Cheapest	Median	Dearest
Cessna 1525 operators	$105	$155	$187
Cessna 17211 operators	$139	$184	$263
Piper PA‑286 operators	$139	$172	$255
Diamond DA402 operators	$220	$232.50	$245
Cirrus SR204 operators	$240	$267	$450
Cirrus SR222 operators	$330	$457.50	$585

The faster four-seaters cost more. A Diamond DA40 rents for $220 an hour at Dragonfly Aviation in Winder, Georgia and $245 for non-members at Sweet Aviation in Fort Wayne, Indiana. A Cirrus SR20 is $240 wet at Wisconsin Aviation, $275 at Dragonfly Aviation and $450 for a G7 at Mike Goulian Aviation in Massachusetts; Clipper Aviation in Van Nuys rents its SR20s dry, at $259 for a G3 and $329 for a G6, with the fuel on top. An SR22 is $330 at Wisconsin Aviation and $585 for a G7 at Mike Goulian Aviation.

What renting a plane costs in Europe

The German and Dutch operators publish their rates including VAT. In Germany, Inflight Charter near Ingolstadt rents a Cessna 172N for €229 and PA-28s from €229 an hour, wet, and charges flight time only: "Abrechnung erfolgt nach reiner Flugzeit (nicht Blockzeit)". Ostseeflug in Barth charges €230 for a 172K and €275 for a 172SP with a G3X panel, wet, on block time, at prices valid from 1 March 2026. In the Netherlands, Wings over Holland at Lelystad charges €196 an hour for a Cessna 172 and €250 for a DA40NG, which its rate list marks as "pure vliegtijd" (flight time only) although the page's general text says it charges block time; landings and a fuel surcharge come on top.

In the United Kingdom, Academy Aviation at North Weald charges £185 for a Cessna 152 and £215 for a Cessna 172 or a PA-28, from "brakes on to brakes off", and says it charges no fuel surcharges, membership fees or landing fees. Fenland Flying School charges £260 per tacho hour for a Cessna 172 and works out what that means per clock hour itself: "an average of £208 for an hour’s flying".

What the hourly rate includes

Before you compare two rates, check three things on the rate page.

• Fuel. A wet rate includes fuel; a dry rate does not. Thirteen of the 20 operators say their rates, or some of them, are wet. Clipper Aviation rents its Cirrus SR20s dry and its PA-28 wet; The Flight School Inc. says its rates are wet but adds a fuel surcharge, AeroDynamic Aviation says it may add one, and Wings over Holland passes a fuel surcharge on. Our wet vs dry rate guide shows what fuel adds to an hour in a Cessna 172S.
• The meter. Every US operator that says how it counts bills the Hobbs or the time the engine runs, the two UK schools bill block time and the tacho, and Inflight Charter bills flight time only. The tacho runs slower than the clock — Fenland Flying School's £260 per tacho hour is £208 per hour of flying by its own reckoning — so at the same rate per hour the same flight costs less on flight time or the tacho than on block time. Hobbs vs Tacho explains how far the meters run apart.
• Minimums and memberships. Clipper Aviation charges at least 3 Hobbs hours for each 24-hour rental period, and St. Charles Flying Service 3 hours per 24 hours on an overnight rental. Seven of the 20 sell a membership or a members' rate that takes the hourly rate down, for example $35 a month at Journeys Aviation for member rates, or "Joining saves you $15/hour on single engine rentals" at Dragonfly Aviation.

The operators that describe their rental process ask for a checkout flight in each type first (Regal Air adds "Some exceptions apply"), and several US operators require your own renter's insurance: Orlandi Flight Center asks for at least $50,000 of hull cover ("minimum $50,000 aircraft damage"), and Journeys Aviation for a non-owned renter's policy for "ANY pilot who possesses a student pilot certificate or higher". What that cover costs, and how UK and Dutch operators handle damage with an excess instead, is in renter's insurance for pilots.

Renting, a flying club or owning: what an hour costs

The same hour in a four-seat trainer costs a renter, a club member and an owner very different amounts.

One hour in a four-seat trainer, three ways

• Renting from a flying school or FBO (median, Cessna 172)$184
• Member of a US flying club (wet, 6 clubs; dues on top)$94–$175
• What the hour costs the owner at 100 hours a year$222
• What the hour costs the owner at 200 hours a year$165
• What the hour costs the owner at 300 hours a year$150

The six US flying clubs in our club rates table that publish a wet hourly rate charge their members $94.39 to $175 an hour for a Cessna 172 or PA-28. All six are below the $184 median rental rate, and four of them bill the tach, which runs slower than the Hobbs most rental rates are on — per hour on the clock those four cost less than their rate suggests. A club member also pays monthly dues — $50 to $230 at these six — and five of the six also ask a joining fee, a deposit or a buy-in, so the club comes out cheaper only for a pilot who flies enough hours a year to spread those over. Rent, share or own a plane? works out where that point lies. For a student pilot, who pays an instructor as well, flying club vs flight school prices the FAA minimum at both.

For the owner, what the hour costs depends on how much the aircraft flies. In our cost model a new Cessna 172S at US prices costs $222 per flight hour at 100 hours a year — more than the $184 median rental rate — $165 at 200 hours and $150 at 300 hours, counting fuel, oil, maintenance, the engine overhaul reserve and the year's fixed costs spread over the hours. That is before insurance and depreciation, which depend on the price of one particular airframe. Only at around 300 hours a year does the gap to a $184 rental rate leave real room for insurance, the aircraft itself and the business that rents it out.

If you rent out an aircraft

For an owner or a club thinking of renting an aircraft out, the question turns around: what rate covers the costs, and how many hours does it have to fly? The aircraft ownership cost calculator works out the break-even rate for your own type, value and hours, and the aircraft rental software guide shows what a rental operation needs besides a rate: bookings renters make themselves, the hours logged per flight on the Hobbs or the Tacho, and an invoice for every flight.