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How Much Does It Cost to Charter a Private Aircraft?
Written by Nick Copley
Last Updated: 30 August 2016
This is a question that we hear quite a bit, as we talk to people who are looking at private jets and other private aircraft. So this article walks you through the different factors and provides some pricing indications. At the bottom of the page is a pricing tool to give you a quote on a custom flight.
To start off you should have in mind:
- Where you want to go, since the distance between these two locations helps define the size of aircraft you will need. The longer the distance the larger the size of aircraft you will need, unless you are happy to stop for refueling.
- The number of people and the amount of baggage you will be travelling with. So more people and/or more baggage will require a larger, more expensive aircraft
Other items that can affect the price are the departure time and date, since prices increase during periods of peak demand. Your return plans are another key pricing element, so if the plane just takes you one way and has to fly back empty you may end up covering the cost of that empty flight.
For a full list of the types of things that you could be charged for, see our earlier article Private Jet Charter Costs - What’s on the Invoice?
Having said all the above, we asked Patrick Harris, President at Velocity Jets to provide some examples of typical flight costs in a range of light, mid, and heavy jets. The prices below are all inclusive prices.
- Miami (MIA) to Los Angeles (VNY) flight time 5.2 hours, light jet $21k, mid jet $24k and heavy jet $33k
- New York (TEB) to London (EGLF) flight time 6.5 hours, heavy jet $60-85K
- Chicago (MDW) to New York (TEB) 2 hour flight, light jet $9k, mid jet$ 12k, heavy jet $18k
- St. Maartin (TNCM) to Miami (KOPF) 3 hour flight, light jet $15k, mid jet, $18k heavy $23-25k
- Chicago (MDW) to Los Angeles (VNY) 4 hour flight, light jet $16k, mid jet $21k, heavy jet $30-32k
Some other examples of prices come from Avinode, which gathers a large amount of data on the charter marketplace. Their recent data shows the average price per hour including taxi rate + fuel surcharges, for various aircraft including:
Midsize Jets
Citation X $4,897 Hawker 800 $3,763 Learjet 60 $3,305
Heavy Jets
Falcon 900 $6,085 Gulfstream IV $5,632 Challenger 604 $5,023
All of the above average prices have increased over the last 6 months. Note that hourly rates can vary quite a bit depending on the age and condition of the aircraft.
If you’re looking at chartering a plane and plan to use a charter broker, there’s good list of questions to ask a private air charter broker or service in this article.
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