What’s the Deal with Private Jet Rates?
This isn’t a setup for a punchline, it’s a legitimate inquiry. The biggest question on everyone’s mind has to do with prices, and that goes for everything. Commodities, amenities, luxuries and utilities - it’s all up, everywhere. Private jet fliers are often considered of the top class and high earning, powerful positions. But up is up. It’s great for jets to rise high, but what about the rates they charge? What are people paying for?
Rates by Weight
First, private jets are classified by their weight class. This ranges from Very Lightweight all the way to the Heavy Jets. A Very Light would be a 4-5 passenger Phenom 100. These have reduced size compartments with a lot of focus on seating and accommodations within arm’s reach. They aren’t for walking around or lounging freely. If you want something more like a hotel room that flies, you want a Super or Heavy Jet like a Gulfstream G-IV.
Jets charge by flight hour. From liftoff to landing, that’s what you’re paying for, usually rounded to the nearest convenient half-hour. Not to mention: you’re paying both ways. For the plane to travel to your destination and back. Private jets may stand by until you need them at the same Fixed-Base Operator and take the second leg of the journey once you’re ready. Or, if you planned a one-way trip, the flight back still needs to happen to get to their own terminal. These are called “Empty Leg” flights because they’re not supposed to take anybody with them. But they can.
These are the basic operational costs which go to the jet’s general ownership, maintenance, the parts and assembly fees - all the costs associated with the jet itself being made. Even paying $15,000 or so for a single flight, you’re hardly putting a dent in the total overhead of how much the jet cost to buy. If you partially owned or joined a membership for a jet, you’d know that cost gets made up after hundreds of flights. That’s how the business works.
On top of all of that is the crew fee for the in-flight crew, the pilots and attendants. Then the fuel surcharge. Part of the hourly rate goes to flight, but the basic initial fueling and take-off has its own added fee. And landing/docking fees. Someone has to pay for the hanger on the ground and the space on precious, limited tarmac at an airport. Then add an extra 7.5% for Federal Excise Tax (or the equivalent for international flights) and that turns a $15,000 flight up to about $19,000.
And it’s all getting more expensive every year.
Rates Flying High
A complex combination of factors has gone into the climbing rates of private jets. A key one is rooted in the supply and demand. Private jets have always been an as-needed sort of service and the people who use them are limited by design. Not everyone can choose to fly private. It’s expensive, and that limits the customer base to only wealthy regulars. However, there is also a limit on use. More demand requires more supply. Private jets take a long time - sometimes years - to build. And that’s under ideal circumstances.
Add in a global pandemic all but halting shipment of resources, including parts for commercial and private jets, and you start to see the bigger picture. The supply crisis of private jets is further worsened with the necessary staff being in short order from overworking. Overworking which occurred flying too many private jet legs. Companies that want to make new jets need investment more than profits, and while capital may not run out soon, major environmental initiatives are encouraging shifts away from traditional jets towards more eco-friendly solutions.
Rates going up is due to more than global economic difficulties. The private jet charter industry has its own woes which get passed down the supply chain to the customer end. A 10% increase in overall charges may be steep for the average flier but for those who frequent private flights it’s just another little issue.
Bridging the Air Gap
Private jet charters can’t do much about their rates but follow the market. The industry is in a period of some of the highest growth it’s ever seen, and with growth comes innovation. Companies are trying everything to solve the growing issues and find the way back to the widest avenue of private jet access. If more people can fly, that means more flights for them, more profit, and more of their mark on the industry as a whole.
JSX is a company which is attempting to push affordability by chartering jets one seat at a time, like how traditional commercial airliners do it. And they have regularly scheduled routine flight services between major cities every day. Just like how commercial airlines do. But they’re much faster, both in motion and in boarding, with minimal boarding procedures requiring long reservations ahead of time, similar to private jet charters. And all for a far lower cost - hundreds per trip instead of thousands per hour.
Memberships have also risen, where people pay a subscription to fly jets anywhere and anytime they want. Surf Air came up with the idea in 2013, renting everything from business class to super-exclusive prop-plane flights along the US West Coast. The catch is they don’t own the jets, so they’re not paying that full price. People can fly cheap because they’re just renting space on a mostly pre-paid flight with other fliers, removing the Private and leaving the Jet Charter at a much cheaper rate.
The usual tricks like booking empty leg flights, which lack the controlled destination, or using commercial miles with partnered charters are still in effect, but they take a backseat to the partial owners who buy stakes in the planes they ride or the high-paying any-price day-of clients who have been flying private since before it was cool, and got used to the price hikes with each passing season. Higher prices are just the standard for private jets. It comes with the territory of high speed, high altitude and high society living.
