If you want to take a mesmerizing trip to the fresh air, if you want to splurge a little to experience both the thrill and calmness in your own hot air balloon, then you must be doing your research on ‘how much does a hot air balloon cost?” To solve all your queries, we have created an article to discuss hot air balloons, their features, and the cost of the same for different brands.
What is a Hot air Balloon?
A hot air balloon is a type of aircraft that is much lighter than the air. It has a bag or an envelope, which contains heated air inside it. The heated air makes the air balloon lighter because of its low density and facilitates the balloon to fly in the sky. There is a wicker basket suspended beneath the balloon to carry the passengers in it.
Typically a hot air balloon contains a wicker basket, a sturdy nylon envelope, stainless steel gas tanks, stainless steel gas burners, an inflation fan, and all transport items inside it.
Types and cost of hot air balloons:
Traveling in your own hot air balloon is like a dream come true because hot air balloons are really extravagant. If you are thinking about buying your own hot air balloon, then you should know that prices of the same vary depending on the brand, features, and quality of the envelope and wicker basket.
A hot air balloon uses propane as its fuel that costs $2 per one gallon; it requires around 30 gallons of propane to complete one balloon flight. So, one flight will cost you around $60 on average.
If we generalize, then the average cost of a hot air balloon can be somewhere between £80,000 and £400,000, if you go for a brand new product. However, second-hand balloons are available at a comparatively lower price in the market. They may cost you somewhere around $17000; the price goes up depending on the size, quality, features, and brands.
If you want to purchase a hot air balloon for a single person’s use, then it may cost you around $16000- $18000. These balloons do contain a wicker basket of smaller size, a big balloon, burners, fuel, and an inflation fan. However, you will not get any fire extinguisher or fuel cylinder with this type of balloon.
The second type of hot air balloon that fits two persons perfectly will cost you around $20,000- $25,000. The third category of hot air balloons includes an envelope of 90,000 cubic feet, a K12 basket, fuel tanks, and much more, which cost you around $35,000-$45,000. These hot air balloons do carry a pilot in them to run the balloon. You can use this balloon for competitions, festivals, romantic dates, and advertisements.
The third category of hot air balloon comes in a more spacious k18 basket having an area of 3700 cubic meters, which will cost you around $50,000.
However, you have a huge range of options available in the market besides the above-discussed categories. Nowadays, customized designer hot air balloons are in a trend that you can use to showcase your style, persona, and extravagant lifestyle. These balloons may cost you around $120,000- $400,000. You can also customize these big balloons according to your preferences; you may choose the shape of your balloons in different cartoon characters, aircraft designs, cars, superheroes, and much more.
Additional Expenses
One of the advantages of having this luxury item is that a person can personalize it further to suit their taste and personality. You may want to customize your balloon according to the design, graphics, and color combination you prefer. The price range for the customization will be anywhere around $5,000 to 10,000, depending on how intricate and extravagant your taste is.
Let us discuss the cost of additional add-ons that you want for your hot air balloons.
• Ballooning gloves – $14.95 to $39.95
• Ballooning boots – $48.02 to $199.08
• Compass – ranges from $4.98 to $39.41
• Waterproof clear map bag – $9.99 to $19.99
• Emergency ignition system – $12.14 to $27.99
• Gas bottle multi-purpose ballooning bag – $9.38 to $48.99
• Balloon pilot logbook – $7.39 to $12.93
Best-Selling Hot Air Balloons
We have made thorough research on best-selling hot air balloons to find out the best selling brands that market the hot air balloons. These brands include Cameron balloons, O-type, Firefly, Ultramagic, S-Series, The Racer, Lindstrand, X-Series, A-series, and Kubisec.
These brands are highly-priced and can be available for purchasing and renting purposes as well.
How much does it cost to rent a hot air balloon?
Hot air balloons are usually chartered for a flight that lasts about 2+ hours that includes set-up, flight, pack-up. You can get a ride in a big ride balloon that is capable of holding 10-15 people for $175.00 per person for a flight.
You can also charter a regular balloon suitable for 1-4 people for $350.00 for the whole balloon for a flight. If you want to have a balloon for a party or special event and give tethered rides, then you can expect to spend around $1,000.00 for 4 hours, depending on wind and weather.
Conclusion
Hot air balloons are costly but they also provide the ultimate flying experience to the user. They make you enjoy your personal moments in an amazing way. You can rent them or own them if you want to go a little extravagant. You can enjoy throwing a ravishing birthday party to your beloved ones while riding on hot air balloons. This will amaze your special person and will also be aesthetically pleasing for both of you. However, it may cost you heavy bucks. If you are searching to go for a ride in hot air balloons then we will suggest you rent one. This will save your money and other maintenance hassles that you have to do after owning one. You can search online for different websites to find out the best one that provides hot air balloons for rent.
If you are a millionaire and can spend a lot on buying them then we will suggest you to go the different individual websites of a particular brand that market hot air balloons. You can individually search for the above-suggested brands to purchase one from them.