Charter aircraft, explained.
Private charter is priced and chosen by aircraft class. Quotes name real aircraft. Here's each class, what it runs per hour, and the specific models you'll actually see on a quote sheet.
Classes · smallest to largest
Turboprop
6-8 seats · $1,200–$2,800 per hour, est.
Turbine engine, propeller, shorter runways: slower than a jet, and the least expensive way to fly private on a short regional hop.
Very Light Jet
4-6 seats · $1,800–$3,200 per hour, est.
Jet speed and altitude in the smallest airframe that has them, for 4 to 5 people on a short trip with light luggage.
Light Jet
6-8 seats · $2,500–$4,500 per hour, est.
Domestic charter's most common airframe: full-size seats, a modest cabin, and the speed, range, and cost that fit the majority of trips.
Midsize Jet
7-9 seats · $4,000–$8,000 per hour, est.
Stand-up headroom, a galley, and baggage for a week: the step up when a light jet would be tight, for 6 to 9 or a longer leg.
Super-Midsize Jet
8-10 seats · $5,000–$10,500 per hour, est.
Coast-to-coast nonstop with a full stand-up cabin and 8 to 10 seats, at a cost well below a true heavy jet's.
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet
10-16 seats · $8,000–$14,000 per hour, est.
Ocean-crossing range and the largest cabins in charter: 10 to 16 seats, full stand-up, room to work, dine, and rest, at the top of the rate card.
The aircraft you'll actually charter
The most common models on the charter market, from the King Air to the Gulfstream flagships, what each one is and why operators fly it.
Pilatus PC-12
Turboprop · typically 6–8 seats
Swiss-built single-engine turboprop with a cargo door that swallows skis, and a staple of West Coast regional charter.
Beechcraft King Air 350
Turboprop · typically 7–9 seats
Beechcraft's twin turboprop benchmark, from a line in continuous production longer than any other business aircraft.
Embraer Phenom 100
Very Light Jet · typically 4 seats
Clean-sheet Embraer very light jet, the one that proved the category and the first step most people take into jet charter.
Cessna Citation M2
Very Light Jet · typically 4–6 seats
Cessna's entry Citation, the current form of the most-produced business-jet family ever, with new avionics and a refreshed cabin.
HondaJet
Very Light Jet · typically 4–5 seats
Honda's clean-sheet jet with the engines up on the wing, and the quietest, roomiest cabin in the very-light class.
Embraer Phenom 300
Light Jet · typically 6–8 seats
World's best-selling light jet year after year, and the default answer for the SoCal getaway.
Cessna Citation CJ3
Light Jet · typically 6–7 seats
Docile, efficient, and everywhere: the CJ-series workhorse, a charter fleet staple for two decades.
Cessna Citation XLS
Midsize Jet · typically 7–9 seats
Cited as the most-chartered business jet in the world, the midsize that made a stand-up cabin routine.
Hawker 800XP
Midsize Jet · typically 8 seats
Hawker Beechcraft's midsize from a lineage dating to the 1960s, with one of the widest, most comfortable cabins in the class.
Learjet 60
Midsize Jet · typically 7–8 seats
Learjet's midsize expression, a strong climber from the name that means private jet.
Bombardier Challenger 350
Super-Midsize Jet · typically 8–10 seats
Best-selling super-midsize of its era, with a flat floor, a wide cabin, and coast-to-coast legs.
Gulfstream G280
Super-Midsize Jet · typically 8–10 seats
Gulfstream's super-midsize, with big-jet cabin thinking and long legs, one class below the flagships.
Cessna Citation X
Super-Midsize Jet · typically 8 seats
Fastest civilian aircraft of its era, famously, and the jet to charter when the clock is the mission.
Bombardier Challenger 650
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 10–12 seats
Wide-body of domestic charter, a cabin famous for its width on a line in production for decades.
Gulfstream G550
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 12–16 seats
Long-range Gulfstream that defined an era, proven around the world and now widely available in charter.
Gulfstream G650
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 12–16 seats
Modern flagship, among the fastest and longest-legged business jets ever built, and the benchmark at the top of the market.
Bombardier Global 6000
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 12–14 seats
Bombardier's ultra-long-range Global, three living zones and intercontinental reach, and the G550's great rival.
Cessna Citation CJ2
Light Jet · typically 5–6 seats
The airplane operators buy when they've done the math: simple, efficient, and everywhere in the charter fleet.
Cessna Citation CJ4
Light Jet · typically 6–8 seats
Biggest and fastest of the CitationJets, light-jet economics stretched toward midsize work.
Cessna Citation V / Ultra / Encore
Light Jet · typically 7–8 seats
Straight-wing 560 family, the older Citation that a large share of light-jet quotes are actually built on.
Pilatus PC-24
Light Jet · typically 6–8 seats
Pilatus calls it the Super Versatile Jet: a PC-12's habits, jet speed, and gravel strips no other jet will touch.
Cessna Citation Mustang
Very Light Jet · typically 4 seats
Cessna's entry jet, 4 seats and turboprop-grade running costs, for the short hop where 2 people are the whole party.
Learjet 40 / 45
Light Jet · typically 6–8 seats
Learjet speed in its most accessible form: the 45, its shorter sibling the 40, and the XR upgrades of both.
Cessna Citation Latitude
Midsize Jet · typically 8–9 seats
A 6-foot cabin, a flat floor, and enough of them in the big fleets that booking one is easy.
Cessna Citation Sovereign
Super-Midsize Jet · typically 8–9 seats
Coast to coast in a Citation, out of runways that turn the bigger jets away.
Embraer Praetor 500 / 600
Super-Midsize Jet · typically 8–9 seats
Fly-by-wire flight controls and an airliner's quiet, in a midsize 500 and a super-midsize 600 that reaches Europe's edge.
Gulfstream G200
Super-Midsize Jet · typically 8–9 seats
Born the Galaxy, badged a Gulfstream: the widest-feeling super-midsize of its generation, at rates that do not match the badge.
Bombardier Challenger 604 / 605
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 9–12 seats
Widest cabin in the heavy class, with a fleet so deep that a North American heavy-jet quote is usually one of these.
Bombardier Challenger 850
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 12–15 seats
A CRJ200 airliner with the airline seats taken out and a lounge put in: the most cabin per dollar in the heavy class.
Embraer Legacy 600 / 650
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 13–14 seats
3 cabin zones on an ERJ airframe, seating 13 and up, for the group that will not fit anywhere else at the price.
Dassault Falcon 2000
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 8–10 seats
Dassault's French twin-engine widebody, with fighter-house handling and a way into Aspen that heavier jets do not have.
Dassault Falcon 900
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 10–12 seats
Trijet performance out of Aspen at weight, 3 living areas behind the cockpit, and versions that kept it current for decades.
Gulfstream GIV / G450
Heavy / Ultra-Long-Range Jet · typically 12–14 seats
Oval windows, Rolls-Royce Tays, and 3 decades of being what people mean by a Gulfstream, at rates the G550/G650 generation cannot match.
Beechcraft King Air 200 / 250
Turboprop · typically 6–7 seats
Most-built twin turboprop there is, in evolution since the 1970s, and the airplane regional charter actually runs on.
Examples, not a full roster. The specific aircraft on your quote varies by operator. Photos are of representative aircraft, credited on each page.