Here’s What It Really Costs To Own Or Charter A Private Jet

Updated Apr 16, 2020 8:45 PM EDT

One of the ultimate symbols of luxury and affluence is private jet travel. From the dawn of the Learjet-era to today’s ultra-long-range large-cabin jets, the most wealthy people in the world enjoy the unparalleled freedom and privilege that private jets provide. For such an intriguing and vaunted domain, there are a lot of misconceptions about it and the finances required to play within it. With this in mind, we dive into what traveling on and even owning one of these flying ‘time machines’ really costs and why they are so popular.

There are two common ways to travel by private jet. Those consist of FAA certified charter operators and private ownership. Fractional ownership companies such as Netjets exist, but they essentially function and offer flights like charter operations and must be certified to do so. In the economic downturn of 2008, many privately owned jet aircraft went away and charter operations, including fractional ownerships, moved up in prevalence.

All FAA charter operations obtain a license or certificate under 14 CFR Federal Aviation Regulations part 135. If they do not have this certificate and do not comply with ongoing safety regulations and inspections, they cannot legally offer charter services to the general public. What this means is anyone can call a licensed charter operation, if they have sufficient funds, and request a flight. When they do, their safety is backstopped by a history of compliance with regulatory guidance, inspections, and flight crew training.

Challenger 300. , Anton Bannikov/Wikicommons

Charter operators are just like airlines, but you must pay for the entire airplane, like a rental. You cannot sell charters by the individual ticket or seat, hence the term ‘charter.’ If you’re not an owner and want to pay to have your family flown on vacation in a private jet, you’ll need to charter an entire aircraft of sufficient range and capacity to do so.

We asked Advantage Aviation Charter in Hayward, California how much it would cost to transport five passengers on a weekend-long round trip from Northern California to Las Vegas and back in their light jet, a Cessna Citation CJ4. The total quote was $21,000, which itself is a significant amount of money, but still quite low for a jet charter, because it’s a short trip and the CJ4 is a small, economical jet. For comparison, that same family flying first-class round trip would run around 15 percent of the charter cost.

A CJ4 would not be capable of flying to Hawaii and wouldn’t be commonly used for intercontinental operations. The lower maximum cruising speed of 451 knots makes it less desirable for long-distance flights, though fueling stops can get it across the United States. Atlantic Ocean crossings would potentially be possible via multiple refuelings on northern routes through Canada, Greenland, and Iceland, but that is not realistic in practice.

Advantage Aviation has long-range options, as well. They operate a Cessna Citation X, which is a very high-performance long-range jet that was at one time the fastest private cabin jet in the world. With 13,000 pounds of thrust and a highly swept wing, the Citation X can cruise above Mach .90, which is 90 percent of the speed of sound. Its range of almost 4,000 miles makes it a solid performer and perennial favorite of flight crews.

Filling up the tank on any private jet isn’t cheap. With an internal fuel capacity of 1,926 gallons, and at $6 per gallon, the X holds $11,556 of fuel when full. Consumption is 347 gallons, or $2,082 per hour.

According to Advantage Aviation, a chartered round trip in a Cessna Citation X from the San Francisco Bay Area to Kauai and staying a week before returning would cost a customer $65,000.

Netjets is the most famous fractional ownership company and operates, in part, under an FAA charter certificate. They have many options to choose from. For $1.3 million, you can buy five years of privileges chartering a near-new Embraer Phenom 300 private jet, which is similar in size and capability to the CJ4. After the $1.3 million buy-in, your contractual privileges give you the access to fly in it 100 hours a year for $524,000 annually. Included is a monthly management fee of $18,000. It works similar to every other charter operation, but you have rights to divest your $1.3 million dollar share at a rate appropriately depreciated for the age of the jet at the time of your sell-back.

With respect to Advantage Aviation and Netjets, the charter costs listed were accurate for a brief period of time. Prices may migrate higher or lower, and substantially so. The cost of chartering can be quite high, as the operator must pay for a professional aircrew and their hotels and travel costs, if necessary, in addition to the cost of operating the jet. On top of that, the operator must increase the price to provide a profit margin that makes it worth their time complying with regulatory guidance and to keep their doors open.

Further, most charter companies charge you for empty and reposition legs. It’s only fair that if you cause a jet to be moved, you pay. Repositioning the aircraft for free or flying it home after dropping you off would destroy any profit made. Nationwide companies like Netjets offer plans that don’t charge for reposition flights because they are large enough to sell the empty legs of your flights, or they can make it up in other ways. The acquisition and monthly fees that Netjets charges its customers negates not paying reposition flights or getting a lower hourly rate.

Netjets has a fleet of 750 aircraft under its purview, making it a massive power player in the private air travel space. , Netjets

Chartering is only cost effective for those customers and passengers who wouldn’t fly very often, or want the simplest method of getting around. With charter, you just schedule, pay, and go. The more cost-effective option for frequent private flyers is to own their jet. The more you fly, the more the large cost of purchasing a jet mitigates paying for a charter operation’s profit margins. How much does it cost? There are a wide range of entry costs, depending on the age and capability of the jet you purchase.

Let’s outline ownership starting small. In recent decades, the VLJ (very light jet) became an entry-level category of the private jet marketplace. Made possible with small and economical engines, such as the Williams FJ series, VLJs are not as popular as they were predicted to be. This is greatly due to their slower speeds and limited load capacity.

The Cirrus Vision SF50, the cheapest of the VLJs, has a single Williams FJ33 jet engine, cruises at 300 knots (over 150 knots less than the CJ4) and can seat seven, including the cockpit seats, in tight quarters. The entry price is competitive, around $2 million brand new. Owners expect to spend an average of $40,000 a year on maintenance and support costs. The SF50 holds 295 gallons and can reduce consumption to 47 gallons per hour if you’re willing to cruise at 242 knots, which is turboprop speed. With full tanks, the SF50 holds $1,770 of fuel at $6 per gallon. Altogether, with purchase financing payments, an SF50 owner can spend $400,000 a year.

VLJs like the SF50 are targeted at owners who will fly the jet themselves and are largely not purchased by private flight departments that need on-demand, all-weather jet travel for business purposes.

Light jets like the Cessna Citation CJ4 we quoted for a charter are very popular. The average market value for a lightly used CJ4 is currently around $6.5 million. Depending on the type of purchase and finance options, monthly payments of $20,000 to $100,000 are common. Maintenance inspections requirements cost an annual average of $55,000 over five years for a CJ4, but rise and fall depending on what inspections are due that year. Private jet owners often choose to participate in programs that involve a fixed hourly price for engine maintenance and inspections for the aircraft, instead of paying as they go, which run around $1,000 per flight hour on a CJ4.

A busy private flight department operating a Citation CJ4 can easily eclipse $500,000 a year in direct operating costs with trips every few weeks. Operating costs would only include costs such as fuel, keeping a pilot on salary, and maintenance. Incidentally, CJ4s burn about 152 gallons per hour in cruise and holds 870 gallons. So, full tanks hold $5,220 of fuel at $6 per gallon. Operating costs factored here would not include the payments for the jet itself. All included, with a payment size of $60,000 a month, the cost of regularly flying a privately owned Citation CJ4 can exceed $1.2 million per year.

CJ4., Cessna-Textron

Older jets from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s come down greatly in acquisition cost, even into the low six-figure range, but are largely less economical to operate. There are many to choose from, but they aren’t fuel-efficient and lack the performance new jets possess.

For instance, vintage Learjets burn more fuel at idle than they do in cruise flight at high altitudes. A 20-minute takeoff delay due to congested air traffic has the potential to eliminate fuel reserves necessary for safe flight.

The FAA has mandated avionics updates, such as ADS-B, that can be quite costly on older aircraft. Exacerbating difficulties associated with older jets are a potential lack of parts availability and knowledgeable maintenance support, in addition to some not meeting noise abatement requirements.

Earlier Learjets, like this Lear 24, were amazingly ahead of their time and beautiful flying machines, but they are highly inefficient and technologically obsolete by today’s standards., Tomás Del Coro/wikicommons

When it comes to late-model aircraft, the sky’s the limit for the size and capability of jets and the cost of private jet travel, both literally and figuratively. The recent king of private jets is the ultra-long-range, large-cabin Gulfstream G650ER. Up to 19 passengers, not including the crew, can enjoy the G650ER’s intercontinental reach with its range of 8,600 miles. In April 2019, a G650ER completed a nonstop flight from Singapore to Tucson, Arizona.

Incredible capability comes with an exorbitant price. Potential G650ER owners can plan on spending $71.5 million just on aircraft acquisition. Many millions more can be spent on customization. The ongoing requirements aren’t cheap either. The G650ER can hold 7,088 gallons of fuel and it gulps down 452 gallons per hour. Fuel prices depend on location, but at $6 a gallon, full tanks hold a spendy $42,500 worth of fuel. That’s right, the price equivalent of buying a loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee every time you fill-up the G650ER’s tanks. One private flight department we spoke to in Van Nuys, California spends $18.6 million a year on all costs involved with keeping and flying their G650ER.

In rare circumstances, heads of state and others with extraordinarily deep pockets have converted full-sized airliners into private jets with bedroom suites, kitchens, theaters and luxury bathrooms. In the past, jumbo jets, including 747 s and A380s, have been converted. The prices of these jets and associated conversions can be $300 million and sometimes $500 million or more in specific cases.

Back in 2015, AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) posted an article that aimed to estimate operating costs for various aircraft. In our case, it helps compare aircraft against each other in a general sense. AOPA gives the following explanation for what these numbers include:

“These are variable costs and include fuel, maintenance (parts and labor), engine reserves, auxiliary power units if applicable, and miscellaneous expenses to include crew travel, catering and cabin supplies, landing and parking fees—all boiled down to a single number.”

So, keep in mind that what you see here doesn’t include actual debt service on the aircraft itself.

Hourly costs of operation:

Cirrus Vision SF50: 661.53

Embraer Phenom 100E: 1,151.84

Embraer Phenom 300: 1,757.53

Cessna Citation CJ4: 1,970.13

Bombardier Learjet 70: 2,166.11

Cessna Citation Sovereign: 2,699.38

Dassault Falcon 2000LXS: 3,089.71

Embraer Legacy 500: 3,179.78

Bombardier Challenger 850 3,544.71

Embraer Legacy 600: 3,739.73

Citation X+: 4,098.69

Gulfstream G550: 4,731.05

Gulfstream G650: 4,843.16

Gulfstream G650ER: 4,847.91

Bombardier Global 6000: 5,149.70

Boeing BBJ 3: 7,396.29

Airbus ACJ320: 7,964.69

Boeing 747SP: 19,944.07

Airbus A380: 29,000.00

All operating costs we’ve listed are to be taken with a grain of salt. The cost varies significantly based on many factors. In both charter and private ownership, managers are always on the phone with service providers, negotiating the best rates possible. Maintenance and catering overbilling are common and must be painstakingly audited and researched.

Therein lies a critical difference between paying for chartered jets and owning a jet. Charter companies only need to compete with each other. Savings they uncover rarely translate to the customer; instead they add profit margins. Companies and individuals that privately own and operate jets generally have Flight Department Managers or Chief Pilots who take a direct approach to cost mitigation, seeking the lowest wholesale cost on everything possible. Every cent they save stays in-house and benefits the owner.

Just for comparison, here are some rough numbers of what it costs to charter an aircraft on an hourly basis, but keep in mind, these figures don’t include a huge number of potential add-ons and additional incurred costs for a charter flight, as we discussed before, nor repositioning or empty return legs. Stratosjets.com lists a range of per hour costs based on the size and capability of the airframe needed for the charter. They read as follows:

Very light jet: $2,750-$3,400/hr

Light jet: $3,750-$4,600/hr

Mid-size jet: $4,400-$5,900/hr

Super mid-size jet: $5,500-$7,000/hr

Heavy jet: $7,600-$11,250/hr

This is a middle ground estimation and a very loose one at that. Some charter outfits post somewhat lower or somewhat higher example rates , but at least this offers an idea of just what this type of convenience generally costs and how much it varies depending on the type of aircraft required or requested for the trip.

Is the perceptively extreme cost of private jet travel worth it? For one, it depends on how much money you have to spend, how much you earn, and how valuable your time is. The advantages private jets provide are costly, but inarguable. The National Business Aviation Association published a study in 2010 showing that small and mid-sized companies that use private jets produce a 219% higher earnings growth than those that use airlines. This may not tell the whole story, but if an individual or a business places extreme value on time management and direct relationships, a jet is likely seen as an essential tool.

Why? For one, there’s almost no waiting in line. Almost everywhere, your pilots and flight department can arrange for a car service to accommodate plane-side passenger dropoff and pickup without parking woes, long walks through terminals, security lines, and waiting to board an airliner—that is if it even shows up on time. The time spent in airline terminals is time lost to someone who can otherwise spend the time working and making much more money than a jet costs to operate.

Embraer Phenom 300. , Embraer

Smaller airports without commercial air service are available to private jets. A city like Los Angeles has many small airports. Direct access to smaller cities in the Los Angeles basin with a private jet can save you from an hour-long drive in heavy traffic resulting from landing at LAX, Burbank, or John Wayne airports in an airliner, and that’s after you make your way out of the terminal.

A modern jet with WIFI connectivity can not only pay for itself in time saved, it can function as a mobile office. It’s quite reasonable with 24-hour access to a private jet for a passenger to attend meetings and functions in several different cities and still be home the same evening, all the while staying productive in transit. Airborne WIFI subscription plans aren’t cheap, either, and many range in the thousands per month.

Traditional supply chains and modern outsourced manufacturing alike often geographically separate the critical components of a business. Private flight departments usually work pilot schedules to keep a crew on call all the time. The ability to travel almost immediately is appealing to those who maintain long-distance business relationships.

New business management tactics become available with a private jet on tap, as well. In the age of smartphones and internet communications, people can be quite bold and unreasonable over email. They are more polite with a phone call and can be even subdued when negotiating differences if you can arrive in their city and take them to lunch on the same day a problem arises. A private jet of any size is most often the only way to provide that flexibility.

Airports with heavy private aviation traffic have FBOs (fixed base operators), which provide terminal services such as refueling, catering, rental cars, and more. Some FBOs handle hundreds of jet refuels per day. There are around 3,000 FBOs in the United States, comprising a multi-billion-dollar industry. FBOs make what is already largely seamless travel even smoother and provide a level of luxury and customer service that simply doesn’t exist in commercial aviation.

To the average person, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month and millions per year to travel on private jets seems downright outlandish. In that vein, so does having millions of dollars in liquid spendable money and hundreds of millions of dollars in personal assets. Few of us are so fortunate, but most often it’s companies with the resources necessary to acquire and operate a jet, not individuals, although stars and business tycoons usually are what people think about first when private air travel comes up.

In the end, we’ve underlined the biggest downside to private jet aviation, and it’s inarguably the cost. Those that can afford it either appreciate the luxury or have found it a necessity for their personal lifestyle or business demands. The dollar figures may seem daunting and out of reach, but thousands of private jet flights take place around the world every day. An entire industry of charter operations, FBOs, aircraft manufacturers, and other service providers have developed around supporting private jet travel. So, if you have the financial resources, it’s all sitting right there ready for you.

The author is a United States Air Force veteran and 5,000 hour Airline Transport Pilot and Commercial Helicopter Pilot, type rated in private jets and with over a decade’s experience managing and flying private aircraft. He has a wide breadth of experience in aviation, having flown people from all backgrounds into and out of everything from small mountain airstrips to large international airports.

Contact the editor: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2020年4月16日晚上8:45

私人飞机旅行堪称奢华与富裕的终极象征之一。从里尔喷气机时代初期到如今的超远程大型客舱喷气式飞机，世界上最富有的人们都享受着私人飞机带来的无与伦比的自由和特权。然而，对于这样一个令人着迷且备受推崇的领域，人们往往存在诸多误解，也对其所需的资金投入知之甚少。鉴于此，我们将深入探讨乘坐甚至拥有一架这样的“飞行时光机”究竟需要多少成本，以及它们为何如此受欢迎。

乘坐私人飞机出行通常有两种方式：一是通过获得美国联邦航空管理局 (FAA) 认证的包机运营商，二是私人拥有飞机。虽然也有像 Netjets 这样的部分所有权公司，但它们的运作方式和提供的飞行服务本质上与包机业务类似，因此也必须获得相关认证。在 2​​008 年经济衰退期间，许多私人拥有的喷气式飞机退出了市场，而包括部分所有权在内的包机业务则迅速发展起来。

所有获得美国联邦航空管理局 (FAA) 许可的包机运营商都必须根据《联邦航空条例》第 14 篇第 135 部分获得许可证或证书。如果没有此证书，且不遵守持续的安全法规和检查，则不能合法地向公众提供包机服务。这意味着，任何人只要有足够的资金，都可以致电获得许可的包机运营商，预订航班。这样一来，他们的安全就得到了监管指导、检查和机组人员培训记录的保障。

挑战者 300。，Anton Bannikov/Wikicommons

包机运营商与航空公司类似，但您必须像租车一样支付整架飞机的费用。包机不能按单张机票或座位出售，因此称为“包机”。如果您不是飞机所有者，但想付费让家人乘坐私人飞机度假，则需要包租一架航程和载客量都足够的飞机。

我们向位于加州海沃德的 Advantage Aviation Charter 公司咨询了包机费用，询问用他们的塞斯纳奖状 CJ4 轻型喷气机，从北加州往返拉斯维加斯，运送五名乘客，周末行程需要多少钱。总报价为 21,000 美元，这本身就是一笔不小的数目，但对于包机来说仍然相当便宜，因为航程较短，而且 CJ4 是一款小型经济型喷气机。相比之下，同样的家庭如果乘坐头等舱往返，费用大约只有包机费用的 15%。

CJ4飞机无法飞往夏威夷，也不会常用于洲际航线。其451节的最大巡航速度较低，因此不太适合长途飞行，不过中途加油可以使其飞越美国。理论上，通过途经加拿大、格陵兰岛和冰岛的北部航线多次加油，可以实现横跨大西洋，但这在实际操作中并不现实。

Advantage Aviation 也提供远程飞行方案。他们运营一架塞斯纳奖状 X 型飞机，这是一款高性能远程喷气式飞机，曾一度是世界上速度最快的私人座舱喷气式飞机。奖状 X 拥有 13,000 磅的推力和高后掠翼，巡航速度可超过 0.90 马赫，即音速的 90%。其近 4,000 英里的航程使其成为性能卓越的机型，并一直深受飞行机组人员的青睐。

给任何私人飞机加油都不便宜。X型飞机的内部燃油容量为1926加仑，按每加仑6美元计算，加满油需要价值11556美元的燃油。其每小时油耗为347加仑，即每小时2082美元。

据 Advantage Aviation 称，从旧金山湾区包机前往考艾岛，乘坐塞斯纳奖状 X 型飞机往返，并在那里停留一周后再返回，费用为 65,000 美元。

Netjets是业内最知名的部分所有权公司，其部分运营业务持有美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）颁发的包机许可证。他们提供多种选择。例如，只需130万美元，您就可以购买一架近乎全新的巴西航空工业公司Phenom 300私人飞机五年的包机权，该飞机的尺寸和性能与CJ4类似。支付130万美元后，您的合同权益允许您每年飞行100小时，年费用为52.4万美元。此外，还需支付每月1.8万美元的管理费。其运作方式与其他包机公司类似，但您有权在出售时以飞机机龄折旧后的价格出售您价值130万美元的份额。

关于 Advantage Aviation 和 Netjets，所列包机价格仅在短时间内准确。价格可能会大幅波动，甚至上涨。包机成本可能相当高昂，因为除了飞机运营成本外，运营商还必须支付专业机组人员的费用，以及必要的酒店和差旅费用。此外，运营商还必须提高价格，以确保利润，从而能够遵守监管规定并维持运营。

此外，大多数包机公司都会对空载航段和调机航段收取费用。如果您导致飞机调动，理应付费。如果免费调机或在送您到达目的地后将飞机飞回原处，将会抵消所有利润。像Netjets这样的全国性公司提供不收取调机费用的套餐，因为它们规模足够大，可以出售您航班的空载航段，或者通过其他方式弥补损失。Netjets向客户收取的购置费和月费抵消了免除调机费用或享受更低小时费率的优势。

Netjets旗下拥有750架飞机，使其成为私人航空旅行领域的实力雄厚的企业。

包机只对那些不常飞行或只想选择最便捷出行方式的客户和乘客来说才划算。包机只需安排行程、付款即可出发。对于经常乘坐私人飞机的乘客来说，更经济的选择是拥有自己的飞机。飞行次数越多，购买飞机的高昂成本就越能抵消包机运营的利润。那么，购买飞机究竟需要多少钱呢？根据飞机的机龄和性能，购买成本差异很大。

让我们从小型飞机开始，来探讨一下私人飞机的拥有问题。近几十年来，超轻型喷气机（VLJ）已成为私人飞机市场的入门级机型。得益于威廉姆斯FJ系列等小型经济型发动机，超轻型喷气机的普及程度并未达到预期。这主要是因为它们的速度较慢，载重能力有限。

Cirrus Vision SF50 是超轻型喷气机中最便宜的机型，配备一台 Williams FJ33 喷气发动机，巡航速度为 300 节（比 CJ4 低 150 多节），在紧凑的机舱空间内可容纳七人（包括驾驶舱座椅）。其入门价格极具竞争力，全新飞机售价约为 200 万美元。机主预计每年平均花费 4 万美元用于维护和支持。SF50 的油箱容量为 295 加仑，如果以 242 节的巡航速度（涡轮螺旋桨飞机的速度）飞行，则油耗可降至每小时 47 加仑。满油状态下，SF50 的燃油价值为 1770 美元（按每加仑 6 美元计算）。总而言之，如果通过贷款购买，SF50 的机主每年可能需要花费 40 万美元。

像SF50这样的超轻型喷气机主要面向那些会亲自驾驶飞机的机主，而那些需要随时按需、全天候喷气机用于商务旅行的私人飞行部门则很少购买这类飞机。

像我们之前报价的塞斯纳奖状CJ4这样的轻型喷气机非常受欢迎。目前，一架轻度使用过的CJ4的平均市场价值约为650万美元。根据购买方式和融资方案的不同，每月还款额通常在2万至10万美元之间。CJ4的维护检查费用平均每年为5.5万美元，五年内如此，但具体费用会根据当年需要进行的检查项目而有所波动。私人飞机机主通常会选择参与按小时计费的发动机维护和飞机检查项目，而不是按飞行小时付费，后者在CJ4上的单次飞行小时费用约为1000美元。

一个繁忙的私人飞行部门如果运营一架Citation CJ4公务机，每隔几周就要飞行一次，那么其直接运营成本很容易超过每年50万美元。运营成本仅包括燃油、飞行员工资和维护等费用。顺便一提，CJ4在巡航状态下每小时大约消耗152加仑燃油，油箱容量为870加仑。因此，满油箱的燃油价值为5220美元（按每加仑6美元计算）。这里所列的运营成本还不包括飞机本身的购置费用。如果每月支付6万美元，那么定期驾驶一架私人拥有的Citation CJ4的成本每年可能超过120万美元。

CJ4，塞斯纳-德事隆

20世纪60年代、70年代和80年代的老式喷气式飞机购置成本大幅下降，甚至低至六位数，但运营成本却高得多。虽然可供选择的机型很多，但它们燃油效率低，性能也远不及新型喷气式飞机。

例如，老式里尔喷气机在怠速状态下的油耗比高空巡航飞行时更高。由于空中交通拥堵导致的20分钟起飞延误，可能会耗尽安全飞行所需的燃油储备。

美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）强制要求老旧飞机进行航空电子设备升级，例如ADS-B系统，这可能会造成相当大的成本。老旧飞机面临的其他难题还包括零部件供应不足、缺乏专业的维修支持，以及部分飞机不符合噪音控制要求。

早期的里尔喷气机，例如这架里尔24，在当时堪称惊艳的超前之作，是美丽的飞行器，但以今天的标准来看，它们的效率极低，技术也已过时。（图片来源：Tomás Del Coro/wikicommons）

就最新型飞机而言，喷气式飞机的尺寸和性能以及私人飞机旅行的成本，无论从字面意义还是比喻意义上来说，都几乎没有上限。近年来，超远程、大客舱的湾流G650ER堪称私人飞机中的王者。G650ER航程可达8600英里，最多可搭载19名乘客（不包括机组人员），尽享洲际飞行的乐趣。2019年4月，一架G650ER完成了从新加坡直飞亚利桑那州图森市的飞行。

卓越的性能也伴随着高昂的价格。潜在的G650ER机主仅购置飞机一项就需要花费7150万美元。而定制改装可能还要花费数百万美元。后续的维护保养费用也同样不菲。G650ER的油箱容量为7088加仑，每小时油耗高达452加仑。油价因地区而异，但按每加仑6美元计算，加满油箱需要花费高达42500美元。没错，每次给G650ER加油，都相当于买一辆配置齐全的吉普大切诺基。我们采访了位于加州范奈斯的一家私人飞行部门，他们每年在G650ER的维护和飞行相关费用上花费高达1860万美元。

在极少数情况下，一些财力雄厚的国家元首会将大型客机改装成私人飞机，配备卧室套房、厨房、影院和豪华浴室。过去，包括波音747和空客A380在内的巨型喷气式客机都曾被改装过。这些飞机及其改装费用可能高达3亿美元，在某些特殊情况下甚至高达5亿美元或更多。

早在2015年，AOPA（美国飞机拥有者和飞行员协会）就发表了一篇文章，旨在估算各种飞机的运营成本。就我们而言，它有助于从总体上比较不同飞机的成本。AOPA对这些数据包含的内容给出了如下解释：

“这些是可变成本，包括燃料、维护（零件和人工）、发动机储备、辅助动力装置（如适用）以及其他杂项费用，例如机组人员差旅费、餐饮和客舱用品、起降费和停车费——所有这些费用最终都会汇总成一个数字。”

所以请记住，您在这里看到的并不包括飞机本身的实际债务偿还。

每小时运营成本：

Cirrus Vision SF50：661.53

巴西航空工业公司 Phenom 100E：1,151.84

巴西航空工业公司Phenom 300：1,757.53

塞斯纳奖状 CJ4：1,970.13

庞巴迪里尔 70：2,166.11

塞斯纳奖状主权型：2,699.38

达索猎鹰2000LXS：3,089.71

巴西航空工业公司莱格赛500：3,179.78

庞巴迪挑战者850 3,544.71

巴西航空工业公司莱格赛600：3,739.73

引用次数 X+：4,098.69

湾流G550：4,731.05

湾流G650：4,843.16

湾流G650ER：4,847.91

庞巴迪环球6000：5,149.70

波音BBJ 3：7,396.29

空客ACJ320：7,964.69

波音747SP：19,944.07

空客A380：29,000.00

我们列出的所有运营成本仅供参考。实际成本会因多种因素而有很大差异。无论是包租还是私人拥有，管理人员都会与服务供应商保持联系，尽可能争取最优价格。维护和餐饮费用超支的情况很常见，必须进行仔细的审核和调查。

包机和拥有私人飞机之间存在着关键区别。包机公司之间只需要相互竞争，他们节省下来的成本很少能真正惠及客户，反而会增加自身的利润。而私人拥有并运营私人飞机的公司和个人通常会配备飞行部门经理或首席飞行员，他们会直接采取措施降低成本，力求在所有方面都找到最低的批发价格。他们节省的每一分钱都留在公司内部，最终惠及所有者。

为了便于比较，以下列出一些按小时计费的包机大致费用，但请注意，这些数字并未包含我们之前讨论过的众多潜在附加费用和包机产生的其他费用，也未包含重新调机或空载返程的费用。Stratosjets.com 根据包机所需机型的大小和性能列出了每小时的费用范围，具体如下：

超轻型喷气式飞机：2,750-3,400美元/小时

轻型喷气机：3,750-4,600美元/小时

中型喷气式飞机：每小时 4,400 美元至 5,900 美元

超中型喷气式飞机：5,500-7,000美元/小时

重型喷气式飞机：7,600-11,250美元/小时

这只是一个大致的估算，而且非常粗略。有些包机公司给出的价格可能略低或略高，但至少这个估算能让你大致了解这类便捷服务的成本，以及价格会根据行程所需或要求的机型而有所不同。

私人飞机旅行看似高昂的费用真的值得吗？首先，这取决于你的预算、收入以及时间的宝贵程度。私人飞机的优势固然昂贵，但毋庸置疑。美国国家公务航空协会 (NBAA) 在 2010 年发布的一项研究表明，使用私人飞机的中小型企业比使用普通航空公司的企业盈利增长高出 219%。这或许并非全部，但如果个人或企业极其重视时间管理和直接人际关系，那么私人飞机很可能被视为必不可少的工具。

为什么？首先，几乎无需排队。几乎在所有地方，您的飞行员和飞行部门都可以安排专车接送乘客，无需为停车烦恼、在航站楼内长途跋涉、安检排队以及等待登机而烦恼——前提是飞机能准点到达。浪费在航站楼的时间，原本可以用来工作赚钱的人，收入远高于运营一架飞机的成本。

巴西航空工业公司 Phenom 300。，巴西航空工业公司

一些没有商业航班的小型机场可供私人飞机使用。像洛杉矶这样的城市就有很多小型机场。乘坐私人飞机直达洛杉矶盆地的小城市，可以省去乘坐大型客机降落在洛杉矶国际机场（LAX）、伯班克机场或约翰·韦恩机场后，在拥堵的交通中耗费一个小时的车程——而且这还是在你走出航站楼之后的时间。

配备Wi-Fi连接的现代喷气式飞机不仅能节省大量时间，还能充当移动办公室。乘客可以24小时使用私人飞机，前往多个城市参加会议和活动，当天晚上就能回家，并在旅途中保持高效工作，这无疑是非常划算的。不过，机上Wi-Fi订阅服务价格不菲，很多套餐每月费用高达数千美元。

传统的供应链和现代的外包制造模式，往往都会将企业的关键环节在地理位置上分隔开来。私人飞行部门通常会根据飞行员的排班情况安排机组人员随时待命。对于那些需要维护长途业务关系的人来说，能够几乎立即出行极具吸引力。

有了私人飞机，新的商务管理策略也随之而来。在智能手机和互联网通讯时代，人们在电子邮件中往往显得大胆无礼，甚至不讲道理。但如果打电话，他们会更加礼貌，如果你能在问题出现的当天就抵达对方所在的城市，请他们共进午餐，他们甚至会在协商分歧时更加克制。而无论大小，私人飞机往往是提供这种灵活性的唯一途径。

私人航空交通繁忙的机场通常设有固定基地运营商 (FBO)，提供加油、餐饮、租车等航站楼服务。一些 FBO 每天处理数百架次喷气式飞机的加油。美国约有 3000 家 FBO，构成了一个价值数十亿美元的产业。FBO 让原本就十分便捷的旅行更加顺畅，并提供商业航空无法比拟的奢华体验和客户服务。

对普通人来说，每月花费数十万美元、每年花费数百万美元乘坐私人飞机出行，简直匪夷所思。同样，拥有数百万美元的流动资金和数亿美元的个人资产也令人难以置信。我们当中很少有人如此幸运，但通常情况下，拥有购置和运营私人飞机所需资源的是公司，而不是个人，尽管人们一提到私人航空旅行，首先想到的往往是明星和商业巨头。

最后，我们强调了私人飞机航空最大的缺点，那就是无可争议的成本。那些负担得起的人，要么是欣赏这种奢华，要么是将其视为个人生活方式或商务需求的必需品。虽然价格数字可能看起来令人望而生畏，遥不可及，但每天全球仍有数千架次私人飞机航班起降。围绕着私人飞机旅行，已经发展出一个完整的产业，包括包机公司、固定基地运营商 (FBO)、飞机制造商和其他服务提供商。所以，如果您有足够的财力，一切都唾手可得。

作者是美国空军退伍军人，拥有5000小时的航线运输飞行员和商用直升机飞行员执照，持有私人飞机机型等级，并拥有十余年的私人飞机管理和飞行经验。他在航空领域经验丰富，曾驾驶飞机搭载来自各行各业的乘客往返于各种机场，从小型山区简易机场到大型国际机场。

联系编辑：Tyler@thedrive.com

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