Across 2,589 reporting FBOs, report prepared 2026-08-31. Fuel is the largest single variable input behind every hourly rate above.
PrivateJetSky / Cost Index / 2026.Q3
THE PRIVATEJETSKY INDEX · EDITION 2026.Q3 · PUBLISHED 2026-08-31
Five published rate cards, one aircraft class, a 2.5x disagreement.
Every quarter this page records what private aviation actually costs, using only sources you can open yourself. It is free because the alternative is not: the one maintained independent database in this category sits behind a subscription, and everything else that ranks for a cost question is written by somebody selling flights.
This edition starts with the finding that made the Index worth publishing. Five brokers and operators each publish an hourly rate card. For a light jet, the cheapest number any of them prints is $1,800 an hour and the dearest is $4,500, and that dearest figure is not even a ceiling: it is where one seller’s pricing starts. A factor of 2.5. The widest disagreement in the table is the turboprop class at 3.33 times. A buyer researching a price is not reading a market. They are reading five sales positions.
LIGHT JET SPREAD 2.5×JET CARD AVERAGE $11,314/HRRATE CARDS COMPARED 5SOURCES, ALL FREE 9
1. What five sellers say the same aircraft costs
These are published rate cards, taken from each company’s own website on the same day. We have not adjusted, normalised or averaged them here. The disagreement is the data.
| Class | PrivateJetSky anchor | Paramount Business Jets | Amalfi Jets | Mercury Jets | Evo Jets | JetFinder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turboprop | $1,800–$3,200our published range | $2,300–$3,500Turboprop Aircraft | $1,500–$3,000Turboprops & Very Light Jets | not published | $1,200–$1,800Turboprop | from $4,000Turboprop |
| Very light jet | $2,200–$3,400our published range | $2,900–$3,400Very Light Jets | $1,500–$3,000Turboprops & Very Light Jets | not published | $1,500–$2,250Very Light Jet | not published |
| Light jet | $3,000–$4,800our published range | $3,750–$4,200Light Jets | $2,500–$4,000Light Jets | $1,800–$3,500Short-Range / Light Jets | $2,200–$3,000Light Jet | from $4,500Light Jet |
| Midsize jet | $4,300–$6,300our published range | $4,700–$5,500Midsize Jets | $4,000–$8,000Midsize Jets | $3,500–$6,500Mid-Range / Midsize Jets | $2,800–$3,800Midsize Jet | from $7,000Midsize Jet |
| Super-midsize | $5,500–$8,000our published range | $6,200–$7,500Super Midsize Jets | $5,000–$10,500Super-Midsize Jets | not published | $3,800–$5,000Supermidsize Jet | from $9,500Super Midsize Jet |
| Large cabin | $7,800–$11,500our published range | $8,500–$10,000Large Jets | $8,500–$14,000+Heavy Jets | $6,500–$12,500Long-Range / Heavy Jets | $5,000–$8,000Heavy Jet | from $11,500Heavy Jet |
| Ultra-long-range | $11,000–$18,000our published range | $12,000–$17,000Ultra Long Range Jets | $10,500–$20,000+Ultra-Long-Range | not published | not published | from $14,000Ultra Long Range |
Hourly, US dollars, base aircraft rate before tax and fees as each source presents it. The small line under each figure is that source’s own category name, because the labels do not line up either. A dash means the source publishes nothing for that class.
RATE CARDS Paramount Business Jets: private jet rental cost table paramountbusinessjets.com read 2026-08-31 · Amalfi Jets: private jet cost per hour amalfijets.com read 2026-08-31 · Mercury Jets: charter cost estimator rate bands mercuryjets.com read 2026-08-31 · Evo Jets: charter flight costs and pricing basics evojets.com read 2026-08-31 · JetFinder: private jet charter cost jetfinder.com read 2026-08-31
2. The disagreement, measured
Lowest and highest published figure per class across those five sources, with the ratio between them. Where a source quotes a floor rather than a range, the floor counts as a published figure like any other, and in two classes here (turboprop, light jet) the highest published figure is itself a floor. If anything that understates the disagreement: the true top of that seller’s range sits above the number shown.
| Class | Lowest published | Highest published | Spread | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turboprop | $1,200 | $4,000a floor: the seller’s range starts here | 3.33× | 4 |
| Very light jet | $1,500 | $3,400 | 2.27× | 3 |
| Light jet | $1,800 | $4,500a floor: the seller’s range starts here | 2.50× | 5 |
| Midsize jet | $2,800 | $8,000 | 2.86× | 5 |
| Super-midsize | $3,800 | $10,500 | 2.76× | 4 |
| Large cabin | $5,000 | $14,000 | 2.80× | 5 |
| Ultra-long-range | $10,500 | $20,000 | 1.90× | 3 |
Our own anchor sits inside the observed spread in all seven classes, which is the test we set for it. A published range that fell outside what the market itself prints would be a range with a problem.
3. Jet card rates, and where they moved
Category averages from the maintained jet card database, which publishes quarterly headline figures without a paywall. These include base rate, fuel surcharges and federal excise tax, so they are not directly comparable with the pre-tax charter rate cards above. That is exactly why the two tables are separate.
| Class | Q2 2026 | Q1 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turboprop | $6,271 | $6,729 | -6.8% |
| Very light jet | $7,688 | $7,852 | -2.1% |
| Light jet | $8,456 | $8,563 | -1.2% |
| Midsize jet | $9,557 | $9,639 | -0.9% |
| Super-midsize | $12,526 | $12,444 | +0.7% |
| Large cabin | $15,236 | $15,612 | -2.4% |
| Ultra-long-range | $19,202 | $19,301 | -0.5% |
The overall North American average for the current period is $11,314 an hour. It is the number this site quotes on its front page, and the number every card decision should be argued against.
CARD RATES Private Jet Card Comparisons: Q2 2026 jet card rate report privatejetcardcomparisons.com read 2026-08-31 · Private Jet Card Comparisons: Q1 2026 jet card rate report privatejetcardcomparisons.com read 2026-08-31
4. What sits underneath the rates
US RETAIL JET A, NATIONWIDE AVERAGE$7.25 / gallon
BUSINESS AVIATION FLIGHT ACTIVITY, JULY 2026+5.6% year over year, globally
North America +4.3%, with fractional operators +10.0% and Part 135 charter +4.8%. Europe fell 1.2%, its first annual contraction in fourteen months. Rest of world +18.5%.
CONTEXT AirNav: US retail Jet A fuel price report airnav.com read 2026-08-31 · Aviation News Europe, reporting ARGUS TraqPak: July 2026 business aviation activity aviationnews.eu read 2026-08-31
5. How this edition is made
- Editions are named for the quarter they are published in. Each figure carries its own source period, which is usually the previous quarter, because that is when the underlying data appears.
- Rate cards are quoted, never scraped or averaged into a single number. Averaging five sales positions produces a sixth sales position. Printing them side by side produces information.
- Every source is free to open. Nothing in this Index requires a subscription, and nothing here is reproduced from behind one.
- A figure that cannot be re-read is dropped, not aged. If a source goes offline or removes its rate card before the next edition, that row disappears and the change is noted rather than carried forward silently.
- Our own anchor is a model, not an observation, and is labeled EST everywhere it appears. The equations are published.
- No commercial relationship touches any figure. No brokerage pays to appear in this table or to be left out of it. Our partner standard says so before any partner exists.
6. Sources in full
- SELLERParamount Business Jets: private jet rental cost table read 2026-08-31
Nine categories, page states rates verified August 2026 from the broker’s own pricing database.
- SELLERAmalfi Jets: private jet cost per hour read 2026-08-31
Published 2026-07-14. Base aircraft charges only, before tax and fees.
- SELLERMercury Jets: charter cost estimator rate bands read 2026-08-31
Three coarse bands rather than per-class rates. Page states rates as of 2026.
- SELLEREvo Jets: charter flight costs and pricing basics read 2026-08-31
No publication or update date shown on the page.
- SELLERJetFinder: private jet charter cost read 2026-08-31
Quoted as floors ("from"), not ranges.
- DATABASEPrivate Jet Card Comparisons: Q2 2026 jet card rate report read 2026-08-31
Category averages, published 2026-07-06. Hourly pricing includes base rate, fuel surcharges and 7.5% FET.
- DATABASEPrivate Jet Card Comparisons: Q1 2026 jet card rate report read 2026-08-31
Prior-quarter comparison basis, published 2026-04-06.
- DATABASEAirNav: US retail Jet A fuel price report read 2026-08-31
Nationwide retail average across reporting FBOs, prepared 2026-08-31.
- DATABASEAviation News Europe, reporting ARGUS TraqPak: July 2026 business aviation activity read 2026-08-31
Published 2026-08-11.
Primary is a regulator or the body that sets the number. Database is a maintained dataset published by a named organisation. Seller is a company publishing its own prices, which is useful evidence and an interested one.
CITE THIS EDITION
PrivateJetSky Index 2026.Q3, published 2026-08-31. https://privatejetsky.com/cost-index/2026-q3.html
Quote it, chart it, or send it to a broker. Attribution and a link are all we ask, and corrections are welcome at hello@plainforge.com: we publish fixes rather than excuses.
What happens next
The next edition refreshes every figure above against the same sources and records what moved. If a rate card changes, that change is the story. If nothing moves, that is the story instead, and it will be said plainly rather than dressed up.
Related: audit a quote against these numbers · run the pathway decision · how the model works