Wondering what the cost of owning a private jet is? Before understanding how much owning a private jet costs, you should ask yourself a question: Should I own a private jet? If you spend over 200-240 hours per year in the sky, and you don’t have a lot of one-way flights, it just might be the right decision so you should definitely keep reading!
Nonetheless, going for fractional ownership might also be a good option for those who don’t want to purchase a jet at full price, but still want to enjoy some of the benefits of ownership of a private aircraft. Even though the overall expenses are variable, we can certainly take a look at the average price of owning a private jet to give you a solid idea.
Here’s the Cost of Owning a Private Jet:
The cost of owning a private jet is $500,000 to $4,5 million per year, on average. This value does not include the initial purchase price of the private jet, which catapults the first year cost to $33,243,520 – $49,322,520 on average.
Buying a brand new jet costs between $2 million and $500 million, depending on the model, and it has an annual expense of around $500,000 to $4,5 million as stated previously, counting flight crew salaries, maintenance and repairs, hangar rental, and many other factors such as insurance and upgrades. Keep reading to find out more about the overall costs of owning a private jet in detail, including real life examples.
Infographic source: Honeywell
Purchase Price
Now, the price of a private jet can vary a lot, depending on factors like the size, range, maker, engine, customization, and avionics, among others. A good price tag to start your journey is over $2 million, but it can go as high as $100 million. Now, if you decide to go for a used model, you can actually go as low as $200.000 – keep in mind that about 85% of jet owners buy second-hand aircraft.
If we look at specific models, the Cirrus Vision Jet is usually the least expensive, with a price tag of $2 million, which can seat seven passengers. On the other side of the scale, there’s the highly customized Airbus A380, costing around $500 million. The Gulfstreams are one of the most popular ones, and a G280 pre-owned one from 2019 can go for around $18.5 million. The new G450 is a different story, with a price of around $38 to $43 million.
Expenses
It would be fantastic if you could only open your wallet for the buying part of this process, but the reality is much different. Owning a jet brings a large variety of ongoing expenses, which are very important to keep in mind, or else you’ll have to fly it back to the store. These ongoing expenses may include routine maintenance and repairs, insurance, flight crew salaries, hangar rental, fuel, and landing fees, among others. Stick around and we’ll give you an idea of what we’re talking about.
Routine Maintenance and Repairs
If there’s something you want to be fully functional and well maintained is a private jet! This is a tough one to budget since it depends a lot on your aircraft and your maintenance team, but if there is an aspect where you don’t want to cut corners is here. In terms of unforeseen repair, so you have an idea, if you get a blown tire, it can cost you around $2000 to $3000 to replace.
Aircraft Insurance
A good insurance plan will cover most malfunctions and damage to your aircraft, hangar, or any other palace that was in contact with your aircraft and, depending on the liability limits, can range from $10.000 to $500.000 a year. Usually, only aviation accident insurance will cover liability claims from injuries or loss of life.
Flight Crew Salaries
Again, a lot of factors are involved, but you can expect a salary of $50.000 to $130.000 per year from any flight attendant (including pilots). Usually, you’re only required to have one in your private jet, but you can request more if you wish.
Hangar Rental
Hangar Rental or hangarage as the experts call it is where you park your jet when you’re not using it. Different places mean different price tags – in Arizona you might pay around $81.000, but in the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) it can go as high as $160.000 per year or $12.000 a month.
Fuel
This is the expense that most depends on your flight time – obviously. You can expect the average fuel range from $500 per hour to $2000 per hour. If you’re following our rule of thumb and doing around 240 hours per year in the sky, $120.000 to $480.000 is a good range to calculate your annual fuel expenses.
Landing Fees
You’re not only paying money to keep your private jet in the air but also to put it down. Landing fees depend on the airports and the size of the aircraft, but you can expect them to be around $500. Now, if the airport is pretty busy, don’t act surprised when they ask you for a landing fee of a few thousand dollars.
Technology, Services and Customization
If you think your list of expenses is over, think again! APU allowance, navigation chart service, catering, computer maintenance, satellite communications and even furnishing your jet are just a few more tabs you’ve got to pay. Commodities like wi-fi can cost between $3 – $8.5 per megabyte. This means that browsing through Instagram can quickly reach the $20 mark, and downloading a movie? You’re talking about something in the thousands. Hard to pinpoint a value for all other aspects, but something in the range of $350.000 is a good starting point.
Now that we’ve taken a look at the general prices and expenses, mainly in terms of United States Dollars, let’s dive in into how much it can cost to own a private jet in other parts of the world and in other currencies.
Cost of Owning a Private Jet in the UK
The United Kingdom is known for its love of aviation, mainly due to the advances made during World War II. This love for the industry has evolved over the years, so it is not surprising to see a lot of celebrities and billionaires traveling on their own private jets. When it comes to the prices of buying and maintaining a private jet, they’re quite similar to their neighbors across the Atlantic. The Embraer Phenom 100 light jet costs around £2 million ($2.5 million), and the midsized Learjet 75 costs about £10 million ($12.6 million). If you want luxury, the popular heavy jet Gulfstream G650 will go for around £48 million ($60 million). In terms of maintaining, you can take the values above as pretty accurate, with the major differences being in terms of airport landing fees.
Cost of Owning a Private Jet in India
The private jet industry hasn’t really wowed Indian industrialists, mainly because of flight restrictions in their main airports (Safdarjung and Juhu). However, you can see very light private jets, like the Eclipse, the Embraer Phenom, and the smaller Cessna going for 232 million rupees to 388 million rupees ($3 to $5 million). In terms of expenses, it’s very similar to the ones described before, even though the workforce (flight attendants) might have lower salaries.
Cost of Owning a Private Jet in Kenya
Kenya is a country in East Africa with beautiful natural landscapes, and the richest people there usually look at them from the sky. However, buying and owning a plane there is definitely not for everyone! The cost of a brand new jet can go for 20 billion Kenya Shillings ($171 million), even though a second-hand one can go from 100 million to 500 million Kenya shillings ($856.000 to $4.2 million) – you can get them in Malmberg aviation, Jiji, or at other places. Now, the annual cost for maintaining a jet can vary between 5 million and 15 million Kenya shinings ($42.000 and $128.000).
Cost of Owning a Private Jet in Nigeria
Even though it is still a bit far, Nigeria’s values don’t differ that much when compared with Kenya’s. A brand new jet in Nigeria can range from 1.14 billion NGN to 2.85 trillion NGN ($2 million to $500 million). Recently, some studies have shown that the number of luxury jets in Nigeria has dropped considerably (more than half) due to the economic recession. However, there are still around 50 to 100 jets, with the annual expenses going for about 30 billion NGN ($1 million) – more if the aircraft is older.
Cost of Owning a Private Jet in South Africa
South Africa is one of the more developed countries in Africa, with its very touristic capital Johannesburg. This means there are quite a few people with the bank and with the jets. Oppenheimer, the billionaire running for De Beers diamond fortune, has a fleet that inclues a Global 6500 and two Challenger 350s. But what about prices? Well, pretty much the same values that you would get in the USA. Between 30 million rands and 7.8 billion rands ($2 million to $500 million). Now, buying a private jet in South Africa brings some obstacles, like FAA compliance laws and tax compliance legalities, so we suggest hiring an aviation attorney to help you through the process. Please remember that you’re only able to get a Jet Card in South Africa if you have at least $10 million worth of equity.
Cost of Owning a Private Jet in Singapore
In Singapore, you can actually hire a private jet for as low as $363, but that’s not really what we’re talking about. However, from all these examples, Singapore is probably the hardest place to buy a private jet, therefore the popularity of chartered flights. Nonetheless, the Cessna Citation Mustang (a very light 4-seater) usually starts at S$3.87 million ($2.7 million), whereas the Bombardier Global 7500 (a large 19-seater) can go as high as S$100 million ($73 million).
In Conclusion
As you can see, even though in most countries the cost of buying a private jet is pretty similar, maintaining one is a different story. You have to factor in a large variety of cultural and financial aspects, that are dependent on the country you are in. Before we go, we’ll leave you with a quick tip – chartered flights on private jets are a great way to reap the benefits and feel the luxury of owning a private jet without breaking the bank, so always keep that in mind before you make a decision.