🚁 Flight Nurse Pricing Calculator
Flight nursing is not floor nursing with a helicopter. The nurses carry CFRN, ACLS, PALS, and flight physicals; the workers comp class is hazardous; and pay runs per-shift (standby plus a premium for each flight) or per-transport instead of standard hourly. This calculator, straight from Dee's How To Charge workbook, stacks the certification costs, builds the true agency cost under both pay models, applies your markup, and then pressure-tests the comp plan for the recruiter and account executive who make the placements happen. Run your numbers once free; the $27 one-time unlock keeps every section live forever and includes the Excel workbook.
Certification and compliance costs (per nurse)
These are costs the agency or nurse bears to be deployment-ready. Flight nursing requires CFRN, ACLS, PALS, and often 2 to 3+ years of critical care or ER experience. Factor them into your pricing.
BCEN non-member rate: $380. ASTNA members pay $285; military rate $195.
$375 to $475 for a review course plus $30 to $75 for a study guide. $500 all-in is a solid planning number.
Required, renewal every 2 years.
Required for pediatric transport capability.
Required, renewal every 2 years.
Official AAP/RQI pricing runs $45 to $159 online; $200 may reflect hosting a skills lab. Adjust to your setup.
Base AME exam $80 to $130 plus roughly $250 for EKG, vision, and hearing testing.
Online courses run $90 to $295; a full 7-day air medical crew course runs about $2,150. Required by FAA Part 135 programs.
Verify with your carrier. Flight and hazardous duty specialty policies typically run $500 to $1,200 a year; $2,400 may overstate.
$800 covers a starter package (suit plus basic kit, no helmet). A full Nomex suit, SPH-5 helmet, and comprehensive kit runs $2,000 to $4,200.
Model 1: per-shift pricing (standby + active)
The nurse is on-call for a defined shift and may fly 0 to 5+ transports during it. Many programs use a hybrid: a base shift rate plus a per-transport bonus for each flight.
Common: 12hr or 24hr shifts.
Flight RN base: $46 to $80/hr depending on market and experience.
Additional pay each time the nurse flies a transport.
Higher than standard due to workers comp on hazardous work classification.
Model 2: per-transport pricing
The nurse is paid a flat fee per transport (per flight). Common with hospital-based programs and EMS contracts.
Range: $500 to $1,500+ per transport depending on acuity and distance.
Bill rate and margin settings
What you charge the hospital, EMS program, or transport company for each flight nurse placement.
Typical flight nurse markups run 25% to 55% by program type; 35% to 45% is the common band.
Revenue projection settings
Scale your flight nurse placement revenue. How many nurses, how many shifts or transports?
Role 1: flight nurse recruiter (W2)
About 5,500 nurses hold the CFRN credential nationwide, so this is a relationship desk, not a volume desk. One to three placements per month is a realistic, healthy production level.
Market range: $52,000 to $72,000. Flight nurse recruiters earn a premium over general travel nurse recruiters for specialty knowledge and a very small candidate pool.
Paid per flight nurse successfully placed and starting assignment. Range: $600 to $1,200.
1 to 3 placements per month is realistic for a flight nurse specialty desk.
Paid when the placed nurse completes 90 continuous days on assignment. Range: $300 to $600.
At 2 placements a month and a realistic 75% completion rate, expect about 1.5 retention bonuses earned monthly.
Optional incentive: a flat bonus for each CFRN-credentialed candidate verified and added to the active pipeline.
5 to 12 verified CFRN candidates added per month is a reasonable target.
Role 2: flight nurse account executive (W2)
The flight nurse AE sells staffing contracts to air medical programs. Commission is anchored to gross profit, not bill rate, with a new program acquisition bonus for opening new relationships.
Market range: $70,000 to $90,000. Flight program AEs are senior specialty sellers who interface with medical directors.
Range: 6 to 10% of GP, anchored to gross profit rather than revenue.
1 to 3 new program contracts per month is a healthy production rate.
Flat bonus when a brand-new program signs a contract. Range: $1,000 to $2,500.
0.5 = one new program every two months. New program openings are slower than individual placements.
25% of commission withheld for the first 30 days, released once the nurse has started and the program is confirmed active.
Profit check settings
If your deployment differs from the revenue projection's nurse count, enter your actual active placement count here.
Role 2B: 1099 flight nurse account executive (commission-only)
The 1099 AE is an independent contractor: no base salary, no employer burden, and a higher commission % to account for self-employment tax and expenses. The average contract GP pulls from your pricing model automatically.
Range: 12 to 18% of GP, higher than the W2 rate because there is no base.
Document the holdback clearly in your independent contractor agreement.
Estimates for planning, not financial advice. Rates, premiums, and burden numbers are the workbook's guidance ranges; your market and your carriers decide the real ones.
Does this resonate?
Low volume, high yield. Build the agency that can fill what others cannot.
If a specialty desk with 5,500 candidates nationwide sounds like your kind of moat, the platform can turn it into a real plan: positioning, licensing checklist, and the week-by-week path from first air medical contract to a full flight team roster.
Build my launch plan free →Good questions about this math
What do flight nurses earn and how are they paid?
Base pay runs $46 to $80 an hour depending on market and experience, but flight nurses are rarely paid standard hourly like floor nursing. The common structures are per-shift (an on-call standby shift of 12 or 24 hours, often with a premium of $100 to $200 for each transport flown) or per-transport (a flat $500 to $1,500+ per flight depending on acuity and distance). Many programs run a hybrid of the two, and this calculator prices both models side by side.
Why does the CFRN certification command a premium?
Only about 5,500 nurses nationwide hold the CFRN credential, and most programs require it along with ACLS, PALS, a flight physical, and crew resource management training. The sheet's certification stack totals $5,805 per nurse at the default inputs. A scarce, expensive-to-maintain credential plus hazardous working conditions is exactly why both the pay rates and the bill rates sit well above standard nursing.
How do rotor wing and fixed wing programs price differently?
The workbook's reference table shows hospital-based rotor wing (helicopter) programs paying $50 to $70 an hour with $500 to $900 per transport, while fixed wing (airplane) programs pay $55 to $75 an hour with $600 to $1,200 per transport because flights are longer. International repatriation and long-haul fixed wing work tops the table at $70 to $100+ an hour and $1,500 to $5,000+ per transport.
What markup do staffing agencies apply on flight nurse placements?
The reference ranges run 25 to 35 percent for EMS and county programs, 35 to 45 percent for hospital-based programs, and 40 to 55 percent for neonatal teams and international work. The sheet defaults to 40 percent, which lands around a 28.6 percent gross margin. The margin has to cover the certification stack, hazardous-duty workers comp, and the specialty recruiting effort.
Why is employer burden set at 24 percent instead of the usual 12 to 15?
Workers comp for flight crews is rated on a hazardous aviation classification, which can multiply that line several times over a clerical or general healthcare class. The state dropdown patches the burden input with FICA plus your state's new-employer SUI and a typical field-labor workers comp band as a starting floor; confirm the actual aviation class rate with your carrier before quoting.
Do I get the Excel version?
Yes. The $27 unlock includes the standalone Flight Nurse Pricing workbook from Dee's How To Charge master, plus the START HERE guide tab, yours to download and keep.
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