How Much Does It Cost to Charter A Private Jet?
This is one of the most common questions that we get from our first time customers. If you’ve never chartered a private jet you have never experienced all of the benefits of private aviation. Odyssey Airways, a private air charter company located in Tampa, Florida, specializes in offering private charter flights for most budgets. We have various aircraft types in our fleet where you can find affordable aircraft charters. Also, empty leg pricing can help you purchase the most cost effective private jet charter.
What Is It Like To Charter A Private Jet?
Before we get into what a private jet charter costs, let’s begin with what it’s like to charter a private aircraft. When describing private aviation, the first word that comes to mind is “convenience”. Unlike the airlines, you get to decide the flight times. If you’re running late for the airport, your private aircraft will wait for you. No more long delays at baggage claim and no more annoying TSA security lines. When you are on board a private jet, the flight is not cramped with people. There is no such thing as a middle seat and your seat is always comfortable and first class. Upon arrival at your destination, no more car rental lines as your car or driver will always be waiting for you right outside your private airplane.
How Does Aircraft Charter Pricing Work?
To rent a private jet, there are many variables that go into the pricing. The primary means of pricing private air charters is by billing every flight hour by an hourly rate. The hourly rate will depend on what time of aircraft you charter. There are many classes of private aircraft and private jets you can charter. Here are a few and their average hourly rates:
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There are many costs associated with operating a private aircraft and a majority of those costs begin once the engines start running. If you want to rent a business jet from Los Angeles to New York City, the flight time may be 5 hours. The average hourly rate for a Gulfstream G650 is $9,200 per hour. At 5 hours, that comes out to approximately $46,000. There are other landing fees that each charter operator will incur at the airports that will also be added to the pricing. These vary with every airport. The busiest airports in the world will generally have the highest landing fees. For that reason, it is usually more cost efficient to use smaller regional airports which will likely be more convenient and closer to your ultimate destination. For example, Teterboro Airport in New Jersey is considered to be the most convenient airport to Manhattan instead of John F. Kennedy Airport. Teterboro Airport will incur lower fees than landing at JFK Airport.
For common routes such as San Francisco to Miami or Chicago to Dallas, many options exist where the aircraft may have a “floating base” This means that the aircraft will never have a specific home base. This allows for better pricing as you do not have to pay for the flight time of the aircraft to return to base.
For less common routes such as Tampa to Memphis, it will be more common for the operator to have to charge for the total flight time to go to Memphis and then return back to Tampa, regardless if there are any passengers onboard. Again, a large portion of the costs to operate a private aircraft are when the engines are running, regardless if the airplane is full or empty.
Another fee that can occur are overnight fees. If the aircraft is to remain overnight in a city, let’s say for a weekend trip, there will be costs associated for that to cover the pilot travel expenses, fees for the aircraft to remain at the airport and enough revenue to justify the aircraft to remain away from its home base. For longer trips, it may be necessary for the aircraft to return back to its base and come back at the end of your trip to pick you up. This is a term commonly known as “double rotation”. Double rotations create more flight time that will be billed at the hourly rate.
Finally, you may wonder at what point will it be more cost effective to always keep the airplane at your destination until your trip is complete. If charter airplanes are not flying, they are not making revenue. For that reason, many operators must charge a minimum daily fee to keep an aircraft idle while away from base. This usually is either a flat fee or a minimum number of flight hours charged at the hourly rate. Generally, this is about 2 hours per day.
Examples of Private Air Charter Rates
Whether you are looking for a corporate aircraft charter for your business or looking for a private air charter for your family, you will want to know how much it costs to rent a private jet. Here are a few examples of private jet prices:
- Tampa to Jacksonville in a Cherokee Six is about $1,600
- Tampa to Miami in a King Air B200 is about $4,000
- Miami to NYC in a Learjet 60 is about $9,500
- Orlando to Nassau in a turboprop is about $7,500
Prices can vary based on availability and aircraft type. Contact us today to get your quote for a private jet charter.
