The average person almost never thinks about how a private jet charter service would cost, simply because we assume that it’s going to be beyond our reach, so why bother, right? While that was true until a few years ago, it’s equally true that private jet charters aren’t selling at sky-high prices anymore, pardon the pun.
Of course, that’s not to say you can get one for a few hundred bucks (and please don’t use a service that costs a few hundred bucks!), but a premium service like Icarus Jet, for example, offers very reasonable packages considering the costs that are involved in operating a bird even for a short flight.
To give you a fair idea of what you can expect to pay, we looked around and saw what most private jet charter companies were advertising, and we were pretty surprised.
Did you know you could jump on an empty leg flight from Houston to Dallas (about 50 minutes flight time) with 5 of your friends or family members for as little as $5,500 plus tax? Or if you’re in Egypt, an empty leg chartered jet for 6 people from Cairo to Luxor will only set you back $7,800 plus tax?
In case you were unaware, an empty leg is when a flight has to go from Point A to Point B either to return from a charter or reposition itself for the next booking. That’s why they’re cheaper because, if the flight did go empty, that would be an overhead for the charter service. An empty leg flight is a way to control those overheads, which can really build up over time.
But even if you ignore this ‘economy’ aspect to ultra-luxury air travel, the fact remains that private jet charter service options are getting cheaper every year. The main factor driving this is competition, which is why most jet charter services are offering loyalty programs, empty leg charters, and other deal-sweeteners that make hiring a private jet more and more affordable.
For that reason, chartering a private jet is no longer the sole preserve of the rich and famous. If you have a special occasion to celebrate and plan your budget in advance, it’s well within reach. Of course, you’ll have to take the reputation of the company into consideration, as well as their experience, width of operational presence, and other factors, but the landscape is definitely evolving in that respect.
The point is, a private jet charter service that needs to survive in the 21st century needs to be flexible and competitive in order to maintain its holding pattern in an increasingly crowded airspace, so to speak. And unless, like Icarus Jet and similar companies, the management bends over backward to deliver absolutely the best experience possible, no business can expect to make it past the next fiscal year. That’s the harsh reality of it, but it’s great news for the consumer because more people are able to afford quality chartered jet services than ever before.
So, if you’ve been on a fence with a few thousand dollars to spend on that special occasion you’ve been planning, the time is right to explore your options.
