Have you ever wonder how to figure out all the different air charter prices or how to understand all the different costs in the air charter quote? We feel your pain and we have some answers in order to help you to find the information you need.

Air Charter fees and costs

The following are the basic billing fees and costs that can and/or may be billed to the charter customer.

• Hourly aircraft rates or charges per miles flown (for typical aircraft rates look at this page)
• Landing fees ($30 to $500)

• Customs fees, international charges, and airport parking fees
• Overnight fees ($150 to $1500)
• Daily minimum fees ( 2 hr per day)
• Taxes per person, per segment and FET taxes
• Fuel surcharges
• Catering and special requests
• Cleaning (transportation of animals or stains caused by customers)


The Air Charter Quote

Quotes come in several different formats as well as different billing ways. Make sure that you know exactly what you are billed for so you don't get any unpleasant surprise.


Hard Quotes

These quotes include all flight charges, landing fees, and taxes for the trip. This means the price of the trip will not change unless the customer changes something themselves. for example number of overnights, routing, number of passengers, or additional stops on the flight, etc. The hard quote also means less worries for the customer for the quote price to change after the flight is completed. The customer knows what they are paying before they book the charter. Keep in mind though that hard quotes tend to round the flight time up incase of weather or delays. You may be billed for 1 hour when your flight was only 50 min. The charter company might also charge you a minimum daily rate to keep the aircraft for any extended duration. The normal minimum rate is 2 hours per day. So if you travel for a 3 day trip, and the aircraft and crew stays, you will get charged for a minimum of 6 hrs even though you only flew 4 hours. Some charter companies will wave this fee if they are in slow season or if you're a using a good broker.



Soft Quotes

These quotes are what they sound like, flexible, they will change as costs incur. This means the charter companies bills the exact flight time that was flown by the pilots. The pilots write down the take off time and landing time so it can be billed to the customer. The customer can also keep track of the flight time. The downside of these kind of quotes is if you have bad weather and the aircraft needs to divert or hold you pay for that extra time. Soft quotes are also subject to daily minimums as well, so ask before you take the flight and read the fine print.


One-way Quotes

These quote are usually practiced in very high trafficked routes and/or high season. Some charter companies have made their niche in the business by having a jet fly one way during periods of high demand or very popular routes. Example: LAX to NYC or Florida to New York . The customers is normally someone who is staying in the area of landing for some time. This way they are not paying for reposition of aircraft, overnights, daily minimums and parking fees. However, they do pay more per hour to use the charter aircraft. If a LearJet normally would costs $2500 per hour, they may charge $2800 per hour for the one way since they may have to wait for the next customer to charter the jet back home. One way quotes are not subject to a daily minimums.


Empty leg quotes

These quotes are for the most savvy of customers. Charter aircraft are almost always chartered round trip. Therefore many times the charter aircraft is flying empty to pick someone up or empty returning home from dropping a passenger off. These way of charter flying have seen the largest amount of growth in the industry. These flights a usually booked though a good air charter broker with a good empty leg data base. With the help of a broker, a customer can fly some percentage of flights on empty leg flights. For example: A light jet leaves New York heads to Florida and drops off a retired couple in Miami for a two weeks stay. Then the jet in question does not have another flight for 2 days. The charter company will keep the jet in Florida until it must return or until someone needs a flight back to the north. That means another customer has a good chance of flying on that same jet witch is already paid for the return leg back to New York. So lets say customer B, wants to go from Palm Beach, FL to Washington, DC the next day? Then customer B would ask the charter company to come to Palm Beach from Miami and pick him up. Customer B needs to be dropped off in Washington, DC and asks the charter company for a quote. What should he pay?

Option 1- The charter is already paid back to the north and Washington, DC is on the return route of the jet. So, the jet will fly about 2 hours with passenger B on board. This flight should be less than the retail rate of the aircraft. If the the retail rate of the citation jet is $2000 per hour, then the price should never exceed the price per hour of the jet, plus the hours flown. The passenger should see a quote for $4000,  tax and maybe a landing fee.

Option 2 - Sometimes the charter company will have a basic empty leg rate for all of their aircraft. Keep in mind that empty legs only work if the aircraft is going in the direction the customer needs to go. Sometimes a charter company will discount the empty leg by 50% because the aircraft must fly in that direction anyways. This is the best way to sell empty leg flights.

For example: A Lear jet flies from New York to Florida and drops off their passengers. The company knows they have a flight the next day and must return later that night from Florida. The dispatcher advertises this flight to all of the customers, brokers and charter companies around that route. This kind of flights are the most economical. But the are scarce and the customer most usually be more flexible with travel dates and times.

View Posted Available Empty Leg Flights, Click Here!

If you have any question about air charter pricing or quotes don't hesitate to contact Air Broker Net Jet Charter.

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