Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Pro rata sharing

Asked by: 8718 views FAA Regulations

Is there anything that may cause a private pilot having his/her passengers pay less than the pro rata share to not sit well with the FAA?  The regulation only says that the pilot can't pay less than the pro rata share, which should mean the passengers could pay less than it.  I've just never heard of this before and I wasn't sure if it jives well with the "equality" of purpose and cost sharing usually associated with splitting flight expenses.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Mar 04, 2012

    Yes.  The passengers can pay less than their pro rata share.  They can even pay nothing at all.  The rule is specifically for the private pilot so that he can’t engage in “commercial” operations without further experience and testing.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Ernest R Ortner III on Mar 08, 2012

    As a private pilot you cannot charge someone to fly with you.  The most you can get is to have your passengers pay the pro rata share, they can pay nothing but no more than.  This all works in line with the fact that you cannot fly someone to a destination unless you are also making that your destination, whether they pay or not, e.g.  You have a friend who wants to go to a concert a couple of cities away but you are not going to the concert.  You can’t fly him to the city where the concert is and drop him off, unless you have a reason you want to go to that city than he could ride along with you.  The safest way to remember what you can and can’t do is to make sure in every situation the passenger is going with you not using you, and they never pay more than you did. 
    As Wes said above.  This is all to prevent you from using your private pilot certificate in a commercial capacity.
    The legal jargon for all that I explained can be found in Part 61.113 (a)(b)(c).  AOPA has also written a few articles on this subject I would suggest giving them a search on their website.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.