Cost of PPL in Quebec

Prices were last reviewed on August 20, 2026. Several schools still have material unanswered questions, and thirteen active Quebec PPL providers still lack a defensible current price.

01The answer first

A Quebec student should currently budget approximately $20,000 to $31,300 all-in for a 60-hour aeroplane PPL at the five schools whose current prices can be compared with reasonable confidence. A dual-heavy 60-hour path raises that range to approximately $20,200 to $32,000. At 75 aircraft hours, the same five-school range is approximately $24,100 to $36,600.

Those figures include school charges, GST and QST for a standalone recreational PPL, a Category 3 medical, written and radio exams, a student pilot permit allowance, a flight-test examiner, flight-test aircraft time, and licence issuance. They exclude a headset, travel, accommodation, and lost income.

This is not a ranking of every Quebec flight school. Transport Canada's live registry returned 27 active Quebec aeroplane FTU records authorized for Private Pilot training on August 20, 2026. Five schools are ranked here, six more have prices but unresolved material questions, one public DEC program is not comparable, and thirteen providers or clubs remain unpriced.

The most defensible conclusion is a range, not one winner. Under the practical 60-hour assumptions used here, Lachute has the lowest modeled total. Exact Air is next. Orizon and Saint-Hubert are close enough that briefing, landing, and renewal assumptions can change their order. Select has the highest modeled total, but it also includes the deepest fixed ground and simulator program in the ranked group.

02Why advertised totals mislead

The advertised total is often a legal-minimum quote, not a likely completion budget. Six items cause most of the gap:

1. Aircraft hours: most quotes use 45 hours even when the school says students often need about 60 or more.
2. Dual versus solo: an hour with an instructor costs more than a solo hour. Two 60-hour estimates can differ materially if one assumes 35 dual hours and another assumes 42.
3. Wet versus dry rates: a low aircraft rate can exclude a large fuel surcharge.
4. Briefing: pre-flight and post-flight instructor time may be billed separately. The sourced programs in this ledger range from 5 quoted hours to 63.5 hours.
5. Sorties and landings: flight hours do not equal flights. A landing fee charged per sortie must be modeled from a sortie count, not from aircraft hours.
6. Taxes and excluded fees: theory, books, insurance, administration, exams, the flight test, and licence issuance can sit outside the headline number.

This analysis uses the least expensive suitable trainer identified in each source. It does not compare helicopter training, Recreational Pilot Permits, integrated CPL or airline programs, the subsidized CQFA DEC, or personal travel and income costs.

03What a PPL legally requires

Transport Canada's Standard 421.26 requires:

• at least 40 hours of private-pilot ground school;
• at least 45 hours of flight training under the direction and supervision of a qualified aeroplane flight instructor;
• at least 17 hours of dual instruction, including the specified cross-country and instrument time;
• at least 12 hours of solo flight, including the specified cross-country flight; and
• no more than 5 of the 45 hours in an approved simulator or flight training device.

The regulation does not require a 30-dual and 15-solo split. That split is a common quoting convention used here only to make the 45-hour estimates comparable.

Transport Canada defines the legal floor, not the typical finishing time. The school correspondence behind this analysis reports outcomes or planning figures from roughly 55 to 100 hours. Sixty aircraft hours is therefore the primary comparison, not a promise that any student will finish at 60.

04How the analysis works

The exact calculations are generated and checked by scripts/ppl-cost-model.mjs.

The 75-hour scenario is calculated line by line. It is not a 20 percent markup on the 60-hour total, because theory, books, registration, and many exam costs do not rise with every aircraft hour.

For landing fees, the 60-hour central case uses 50 sorties. The sensitivity range is 45 to 60 sorties. A school-supplied sortie count replaces the central assumption when one is available. At Saint-Hubert, each observed sortie has included one full-stop landing and one touch-and-go, so the 60-hour landing line ranges from approximately $2,500 at 45 sorties to $3,400 at 60 sorties, before extra circuit events.

For every ranked school, the model contains the same 21 output rows: aircraft, instructor, solo supervision, briefing, simulator, theory, materials, insurance or membership, administration, landing fees, fuel, school subtotal, tax, medical, written exam, radio exam, student permit, examiner, flight-test aircraft, licence issuance, and all-in total.

05The main comparison

Article totals are rounded to the nearest $100. The methodology appendix retains cents.

* Lachute's emailed quote includes its $830 flight-test aircraft and examiner package.
** Orizon's quote excludes the $20 per-sortie landing charge collected separately.
*** Select's quoted package excludes the $630 kit and the common third-party costs.

These are standalone recreational PPL cases with GST and QST applied. The table does not apply a vocational exemption merely because a student may later pursue a CPL.

The all-in layer uses one set of third-party comparison allowances unless a current school source supplies its examiner price. It uses the direct government amounts for a Transport Canada-administered written exam and PPL issuance. School or authorized-agent administration can cost more and remains a quote question rather than being silently treated as zero.

Important uncertainty notes:

• Exact Air's fuel surcharge changes weekly.
• Saint-Hubert's exact online theory price, briefing rate, briefing hours, and insurance renewal timing are unresolved. The model uses the known $999 group course rather than the unconfirmed lower online figure.
• Lachute includes only five briefing hours in its 45-hour quote and says additional briefing varies. The 60-hour model assumes 15 hours.
• Select's package uses 31.5 dual and 13.5 solo hours. The common model instead applies the required scenario splits to its dated à-la-carte rates.

Priced cases excluded from the ranking

“At least” means a known lower bound with a material fee omitted, not a zero-dollar assumption.

06Quoted cost versus realistic cost

The quote and the practical model answer different questions. The quote usually asks, “What would the minimum program cost under the school's packaging?” The model asks, “What would the same school cost at 60 aircraft hours under one shared split and fee structure?”

The difference is not evidence of deception by itself. It is evidence that quote conventions, package boundaries, and realistic completion assumptions need to be displayed together.

07School-by-school analysis

Lachute Aviation

What is included: C-152 at $195 wet, instructor at $65, five quoted briefing hours at the 45-hour basis, $400 group theory, and $500 materials. The school reports no landing, administration, insurance, or membership fee.

What is excluded: medical, government and radio exams, examiner, flight-test aircraft, licence issuance, headset, and any briefing beyond the quote.

What could change: briefing depends on student preparation. Training availability and a waitlist can extend the calendar, though those effects are not priced in the model.

Questions still unresolved: the average briefing total for students finishing at 60 and 75 aircraft hours.

Exact Air

What is included: C-152 solo value of $179, bundled dual value of $278, 15 preparatory hours at $99, $535 group theory, $480 kit, and base-airport landing fees absorbed by the school.

What is excluded: common third-party licensing costs and the flight-test aircraft in the article's all-in layer.

What could change: the fuel surcharge floats weekly. The model uses the later written value of $6.11 per aircraft hour; the displayed quote total implies an earlier value near $5.71.

Questions still unresolved: no material question blocks the common model, but any publication-day update must refresh the surcharge.

Orizon Aviation

What is included: C-152 at $184 wet, instructor at $105, $35 supervision for each solo sortie, 15 briefing hours, $1,080 theory, and a $674.99 kit.

What is excluded: $20 landing fees collected separately, plus medical, exams, examiner, flight-test aircraft, and licence issuance.

What could change: briefing varies with preparation and pace. The school says its 60-hour quote represents 35 dual and 25 solo hours.

Questions still unresolved: none material to the current model. Landing count remains a scenario assumption, so 45 to 60 sorties should still be tested.

Collège de pilotage Saint-Hubert

What is included: C-152 base rental of $107, $81 fuel surcharge, $89 instructor, $450 kit, $300 annual insurance, $50 file opening, the known $999 group theory course, and observed landing billing.

What is excluded: common third-party costs are added in the all-in layer. Taxi delays, extra circuit events, and a second insurance year are not in the central total.

What could change: each observed sortie adds at least $38.25 for a full stop and $18.35 for a touch-and-go. Moving from 45 to 60 sorties adds about $1,000 tax included. A second insurance year adds about $345 tax included.

Questions still unresolved: exact online theory price and provider; whether briefings use the $89 or $125 rate; typical briefing hours; whether insurance covers twelve months or a calendar year; average sortie duration; and whether every circuit touch-and-go is billed individually.

Select Aviation

What is included: a structured package with 45 aircraft hours, 8.5 simulator hours, 63.5 hours of ground or preparatory instruction, and a $1,000 mixed bundle for access, membership, insurance, deductible coverage, and registration.

What is excluded: the $629.99 kit and common third-party costs are outside the quoted package.

What could change: extra hours use dated à-la-carte rates. The school's price-protection terms limit some changes but do not eliminate the cost of overruns. The model retains an unexplained $720 pre-tax package residual in administration rather than dropping it from the total.

Questions still unresolved: which package component explains the $720 residual; whether extra flight hours trigger extra ground instruction; how repeating a phase is priced; and how flexible the package's 31.5-dual and 13.5-solo split is.

Academy of Aeronautics

What is included: bundled C-152 rates of $305 dual and $269 solo, 40 hours theory, 43 briefing hours, 5 simulator hours, $300 admission and registration, and $12.67 per sortie.

What is excluded: books and the common third-party licensing costs.

What could change: taxed versus untaxed treatment changes the 60-hour all-in result by about $3,800. If briefing rises after 45 aircraft hours, the displayed range is too low.

Questions still unresolved: whether GST and QST apply; whether 43 briefing hours remain fixed; and typical briefing hours for students finishing at 65 and 100 aircraft hours.

ALTITUDE Centre de l'Aviation

What is included: the official real estimate lists PA-28 aircraft at $259, instruction at $99, supervisor time at $128, 36 ground-instruction hours, 10 simulator hours, $850 theory, and $1,200 materials.

What is excluded: the current fuel surcharge is outside the printed total.

What could change: a separately described $275 administration charge has not been reconciled with the printed estimate. The school also describes separate treatment for a professional path. This article does not transfer that treatment to a standalone recreational PPL.

Questions still unresolved: whether nine supervisor hours sit inside the 33 instruction hours; why 46 aircraft hours are billed when flight categories total 56; the current PA-28 fuel surcharge; the exact administration treatment; and the precise enrolment structure behind any tax representation.

Air Richelieu

What is included: C-150 at $235, instructor at $89, 15 ground-instruction hours, 10 simulator hours with instructor, $15 per sortie, and an approximately $2,500 annex.

What is excluded: the current weekly fuel adjustment is not known. The annex is not sufficiently itemized to separate school and third-party costs.

What could change: the school brochure presents a vocational pathway without tax. CRA's federal guidance says standalone PPL instruction is taxable, so the article shows the represented pathway separately from a taxable standalone case.

Questions still unresolved: whether the 10 simulator hours are mandatory; the current fuel adjustment; every component of the annex; standalone PPL tax treatment; and the exact professional enrolment structure.

CFAQ

What is included: the June 2024 quote uses C-152 at $195, instructor at $85, 12 preparatory hours, $750 theory, and $500 materials.

What is excluded: no landing fee is itemized, so the lower bound does not call it zero. Common current third-party costs are added by the model.

What could change: the source is more than two years old at publication date and should not be ranked next to 2026 quotes.

Questions still unresolved: a complete 2026 quote and whether CYQB landing fees are absorbed or passed to students.

Cargair

What is included: the $18,500 tax-in package uses a 45-hour basis, 30 dual, 15 solo, 10 briefing hours, registration, supervision, aeroclub participation, and landing fees.

What is excluded: theory, headset, Transport Canada exams, and any current fuel surcharge. The all-in lower bound adds standardized third-party costs and flight-test aircraft.

What could change: the quoted price assumes a $4,000 account deposit for discounted hourly rates. The 2025 rate sheet says the Canadian average is 65 hours, while admissions wrote that Cargair students average about 55.

Questions still unresolved: theory price, current fuel surcharge, package allocation, landing-fee basis, and the 55-versus-65-hour discrepancy.

Collège iFly

What is included: DA-20 dry rental at $195, written fuel guidance of about $70 per hour, instructor at $90, and a $19 landing line shown per aircraft hour on the rate sheet.

What is excluded: theory and material prices are missing. Common third-party costs and flight-test aircraft are added to the lower bound.

What could change: fuel changes weekly. The school says students generally finish in 60 to 70 hours.

Questions still unresolved: exact theory and material prices, current fuel, and confirmation that the unusual $19 landing unit is really per aircraft hour.

08The costs that determine the ranking

Dual hours

At 60 hours, changing from 35 dual and 25 solo to 42 dual and 18 solo adds approximately:

The effect depends on the instructor premium, solo-supervision rule, and package structure. The dual-heavy split must never be labeled as the 35/25 practical split.

Briefing and fixed programs

Briefing is one of the largest structural differences. The ranked 60-hour model uses approximately $975 at Lachute, $1,485 at Exact Air, $1,575 at Orizon, $1,335 at Saint-Hubert, and $3,810 at Select. These are not fully equivalent products: Select's 63.5-hour structure is much deeper than a 15-hour briefing estimate.

Landing fees and sorties

Lachute and Exact report no separately charged base-airport landing fee. Orizon is modeled at $20 per sortie. Saint-Hubert's observed minimum is $56.60 per sortie before extra circuits. Select reports no fee at its base. Because these fees are per flight or event, changing the sortie assumption can move the ranking even when aircraft hours do not change.

Fuel and taxes

Exact Air has a small weekly surcharge. Saint-Hubert's $81 surcharge is nearly as large as its $107 base aircraft rental. iFly quotes its trainer dry and gives a weekly fuel estimate. ALTITUDE and Air Richelieu have unresolved current fuel adjustments and are therefore not ranked.

GST and QST add 14.975 percent to taxable school charges. That is too large to infer from silence or from a student's future career intention.

09Tax treatment

This is cost modeling, not tax advice.

For the primary ranking, a standalone recreational PPL is taxable. CRA GST/HST Memorandum 20-4, paragraph 56, states that PPL instruction and flight time are considered personal-interest training and are not exempt under the vocational-school rule, even though the time may later count toward another licence.

A qualifying commercial, professional, or integrated program can have different treatment. That case must be tied to the school's actual program structure and documentation. It is shown separately when a school represents an exempt path. A declaration of possible future commercial intent is not applied as a universal exemption.

The Quebec statute contains a vocational-course exemption, but applying it to a particular supply remains fact-specific. Unknown treatment therefore produces both taxable and untaxed cases, not an assumed exemption.

The tuition tax credit is separate from sales tax. CRA's Income Tax Folio S1-F2-C2 says flying-school fees qualify only when lessons are taken to become a commercial pilot or professional instructor, subject to the folio's conditions and limits.

10Budget scenarios

These are modeled all-in totals before a headset. They are not guarantees. A student should also keep a contingency for price changes, repeated lessons, extra circuits, a second annual fee, and any category marked unresolved.

Personal expenses kept outside the comparison

• Headset: roughly $250 to $2,000 depending on features and whether the school supplies loaners.
• Travel and parking.
• Accommodation for training away from home.
• Lost income and childcare.
• Financing interest.

11How to request a useful quote

Ask every school the same questions in writing:

1. Which aircraft is the least expensive suitable trainer, and is its rate wet or dry?
2. What fuel surcharge applies today, and how can it change?
3. How many aircraft, dual, solo, simulator, briefing, and theory hours does the quote assume?
4. What do current students average at the flight test?
5. How many sorties does that usually represent?
6. What is charged for a full-stop landing, touch-and-go, away-airport landing, or after-hours flight following?
7. What are the theory, kit, insurance, membership, administration, registration, supervision, cancellation, and deposit charges?
8. Which medical, written, radio, permit, examiner, flight-test aircraft, and licence charges are included?
9. Does GST/QST apply to a standalone PPL? If another pathway is exempt, what exact enrolment structure and documentation qualify?
10. When was the rate sheet updated, and which prices can change after enrolment?

The useful deliverable is an itemized response, not one package total.

12Limitations and missing schools

This draft is intentionally unpublished because the evidence is incomplete.

The current Transport Canada roster includes thirteen providers or clubs without a defensible current modular-PPL price in this analysis: Grondair Aviation, EID Air Aviation, A.L.M. par Avion, Aéroclub Gatineau Ottawa, Aéro Club de Longueuil, Aviation Skynova, Aero Loisirs, École de pilotage Évolution, Académie de pilotage internationale, Aviation MH, Ikaros International Flight Training, Delco Aviation, and Lanaudiair.

CQFA is listed by Transport Canada but excluded from the price comparison because its subsidized, contingented public DEC is not a walk-in modular PPL purchase.

Other limitations:

• Private email quotes and photographed sheets are described but are not publicly linkable.
• CFAQ's source is from June 2024 and cannot support a 2026 rank.
• Academy tax and briefing treatment are unresolved.
• ALTITUDE's printed hours do not reconcile.
• Air Richelieu's fuel, simulator, annex, and tax cases remain unresolved.
• Cargair and iFly still have material missing prices.
• Taxi time, weather delays, repeated lessons, and instructor availability are real costs but are not consistently measurable across schools.
• The central sortie counts are documented assumptions, not observed averages for every school.

No additional email outreach is planned. Floating and older prices should be refreshed before the next material update, and every case with materially unresolved pricing must remain outside the ranking.

13Sources and update history

School documents

• Collège de pilotage Saint-Hubert, printed “Taux horaires et autres tarifs unitaires 2026-2027/FR,” photographed August 13, 2026; author's invoices reviewed August 2026.
• Lachute Aviation, official email quote and clarification, August 14, 2026; current live rate page checked August 2026.
• Orizon Aviation, official 2026 C-152 and C-172 quotes received August 14, 2026; written clarification received August 18, 2026.
• Exact Air, official 2026 estimate and school email received August 14, 2026.
• Select Aviation, PPL quote dated March 26, 2026; master price list dated December 2025.
• Academy of Aeronautics, official modular rate grid and email received August 14, 2026.
• ALTITUDE Centre de l'Aviation, four official estimates and correspondence received August 15, 2026.
• Air Richelieu, official modular brochure with rates effective January 2025, accessed August 14, 2026.
• CFAQ, official C-152 PPL quote dated June 2024.
• Cargair, official PPL quote, 2025 rate sheet, and admissions email received August 20, 2026.
• Collège iFly, official rate sheet effective January 1, 2026, brochure, and admissions email received August 20, 2026.

Public authorities

• Transport Canada Standard 421.26, checked August 20, 2026.
• Canadian Aviation Regulations Schedule IV, current to June 17, 2026 and checked August 20, 2026.
• Transport Canada Flight Training Units Search, live query run August 20, 2026.
• CRA GST/HST Memorandum 20-4, checked August 20, 2026.
• Quebec Sales Tax Act, section 127, checked August 20, 2026.
• CRA Income Tax Folio S1-F2-C2, checked August 20, 2026.
• ISED RIC-20, checked August 20, 2026.

Update history

• August 20, 2026: rebuilt the model around the required 45-hour, 60-hour 35/25, 60-hour 42/18, and directly calculated 75-hour scenarios.
• August 20, 2026: verified current government fees and corrected standalone PPL tax treatment using CRA guidance.
• August 20, 2026: reconciled the school universe against Transport Canada's live active-FTU roster.
• August 20, 2026: moved incomplete and internally inconsistent cases out of the primary ranking.

Methodology appendix: exact 60-hour arithmetic

The table below preserves exact values for the primary 60-hour scenario: 35 dual hours, 25 solo hours, and 50 sorties. Zero means the source explicitly reports no charge or the category does not apply. Missing material charges are not represented as zero; those schools are outside the ranked table.

* Select's theory or ground program is represented in the 63.5-hour briefing and preparatory-ground row to avoid counting it twice.
** Select's $1,000 mixed bundle is split evenly because the quote does not allocate it. The administration row also retains the $720 difference between the $21,090 official package total and the sum reconstructed from the stated package hours at the dated à-la-carte rates. The residual remains visibly unallocated rather than being treated as zero.

Government-fee checks use $105 for a Transport Canada-administered written exam and $55 for licence issuance. ISED charges no ROC-A issuance fee; the $80 line is a central allowance for an examiner's administration charge. The $50 student-permit line is an August 2026 school administration allowance, not a Transport Canada statutory issuance charge. The $320 medical is a 2026 Quebec first-person value, not a regulated physician fee. Examiner prices are school-source values where available and $550 otherwise. Flight-test aircraft uses 1.5 hours at the modeled trainer rate, including current fuel and applicable tax. The source ledger records the basis and uncertainty for every common allowance.

Reproduce the table with:

node scripts/ppl-cost-model.mjs