We were recently contacted by one of our clients who needed to charter a jet. He knew we worked in this industry and wanted to share his experience. We were even surprised by the dramatic cost difference for the same private jet charter.
Jet charters are broken down by type of aircraft. On the low end are the light jets and on the high end, the airliner class. In the middle are two classes of aircraft, the midsize and super midsize.
Our client was planning a flight on a midsize private jet. In that group some aircraft include:
- Citation XL
- Lear 60
- Hawker 800XP
- Gulfstream G-150
- Falcon 20
- Sabreliner 60
There is a generally accepted cost per hour range for each aircraft class. For the midsize class, the price per hour range is $3,200 – $4,200. Our research found lower and higher number ranges, so this appears to be the average.
The planned flight was from New York City to Aspen Colorado. The actual airports to be used were (TEB) Teterboro, New Jersey and (ASE) Aspen/Pitkin County, Colorado. Both are popular for private jets.
Now the fun begins. Several charter companies, who were brokers, have immediate online price quotes on their websites. However, you will get the best prices if you interact with the company. It usually just requires providing your name and email address. It is also a good way to tell how responsive the company is.
We decided to verify the information he provided and interact with a couple of the companies ourselves.
For the immediate online quotes, we found:
- Mercury Jets: $28,350
- Monarch: $28,350
- Stratos: $30,667
- Fly XO: $33,274
- evoJets: $40,200
- Clay Lacy: $46,461
- Jettly: $47,574
It is hard to believe that for the same flight on the same class aircraft one company quoted $28,000 and another over $47,000.
But it gets better. When we did communicate with some of these companies and requested quotes from others, the prices came way down. That made sense since the flight time is 4 hours and we do the math. Even on the high end the hourly rate of $4,200 x 4 hours = $16,800.
We did get the best price from InstaJet Charters. Full disclosure, we do have an affiliation with them. However, there were others that also provided quotes in the $19,000 range. And that is what the client wound up paying.
Yes, and they were Argus registered brokers and Wyvern carriers. And we know that price is not the only factor to consider.
So, despite the dramatic cost difference for the same private jet charter, requesting an offline quote did get the best price by far.
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