Private Jet Classes Explained

A request for “a jet for six people, London to Dubai” has a few sensible answers and several wrong ones. The classes are an operator convention, not a certification category, which is why the same tail is light on one quote and midsize on the next. Headcount and distance do most of the work; runway length, baggage shape and cabin height decide the rest.

Turboprops get into places jets cannot

A turboprop has propellers, and a broker who calls it a jet is rounding in their own favour. A Pilatus PC-12 or King Air 350 carries six to eight passengers 1,500 to 2,500 km at 500 km/h, against 830 for a light jet, and at 1.45 m of cabin height the lavatory is a curtained seat. The PC-12 is certified off 800 m of grass or gravel, but unpaved operations are an operator decision: not every operator is approved, and some strips need a survey. Nairobi Wilson (WIL) to a Masai Mara airstrip, or London Oxford (OXF) to a Scottish island, is often turboprop or nothing.

Very light jets: two or three people and a bag each

The entry rung is the Cessna Citation M2, Embraer Phenom 100EV and HondaJet Elite. Four passengers is the real number. Five works on some tails using the belted lavatory seat, and at five or six you trade fuel or bags, so the 1,800 to 2,200 km still-air figure stops applying. Cabin height is 1.45 to 1.50 m, the aisle a footwell between the seats.

Baggage is the constraint: two or three soft bags, and skis or golf clubs need clearing with the operator first. The lavatory is the same curtained seat. They get airborne off 1,000 m, keeping small fields near the destination in play. Milan Linate (LIN) to Munich, Le Bourget (LBG) to Zurich.

The light jet covers most of Europe

Farnborough (FAB) to Palma (PMI), Geneva to Athens, Dubai to Bahrain, Teterboro (TEB) to Miami. A Citation CJ3+ or Phenom 300E takes six or seven passengers 2,800 to 3,700 km on type, load and wind, and that pair is what Europe actually offers. The Learjet 75 Liberty is close to absent from the charter fleet. Runway is 1,100 to 1,400 m at sea level, but in heat and at altitude that grows fast, and St Moritz Samedan gates you on crew qualification, prior permission and operating hours before length.

Headroom is unchanged at 1.45 to 1.50 m. The lavatory is enclosed with a solid door, and baggage runs to about 1.5 cubic metres, double a very light jet.

Midsize jets: standing room and a proper galley

Hawker 800XP and 900XP, Citation Latitude, Learjet 60XR, Gulfstream G150. Seven to nine passengers over 4,400 to 6,100 km. A six-footer stands upright on the Latitude’s flat floor, just, at 1.83 m; the older Hawkers take 8 cm off that.

The lavatory has a door that locks and the galley does hot food. Baggage varies more than anything else here: 1.4 to 1.5 cubic metres on the Hawker 800XP and Learjet 60XR, closer to 2.8 on a Latitude, so ask for the hold figure on the tail, not the class. Ask for 1,500 to 1,800 m of runway at both ends. London Luton (LTN) to Marrakech, Dubai to Mumbai, Nice to Riyadh. United States coast to coast is comfortable eastbound. Westbound, plan on a fuel stop: the 900XP and Latitude beat it on a good day, the 800XP and Learjet 60XR rarely in winter.

Super midsize: the transcontinental class

Bombardier Challenger 350 and 3500, Citation Longitude, Embraer Praetor 600, Gulfstream G280. Eight to ten passengers, 5,900 to 6,700 km, 1,500 to 1,700 m of runway. A Challenger gives 1.83 m of headroom, 2.2 m of cabin width, an enclosed lavatory, a full galley and three cubic metres of baggage; on the Praetor 600 you reach the hold in flight.

London to Dubai, Los Angeles to Honolulu and Sao Paulo to Bogota sit inside the envelope. A transatlantic such as Luton to Teterboro is within book range, but westbound winter headwinds often add a technical stop at Shannon (SNN) or Gander (YQX).

Heavy jets: 7,000 km and a galley the crew can cook in

Challenger 605 and 650, Falcon 2000LXS and Falcon 900LX, Gulfstream G450, Embraer Legacy 650. Ten to fourteen passengers. Plan on 6,500 to 7,400 km for a Challenger 650, Falcon 2000LXS or Legacy 650. The Falcon 900LX and G450 go a genuine step further, closer to 8,000 to 8,800 km, the honest stop-free choice on longer Middle East and Asia legs. Two zones, 1.83 to 1.88 m of headroom, an enclosed lavatory, four to five cubic metres of baggage reachable in flight.

Runway is 1,700 to 1,900 m, with one exception. Some Falcon 900 and Falcon 2000 variants are steep-approach approved for London City (LCY) and its 1,508 m runway, which puts a large cabin fifteen minutes from Canary Wharf. The operator and the crew have to be LCY-qualified too, so the pool is small, and departures are weight-limited: a transatlantic out of LCY needs a fuel stop or a reposition to Luton or Farnborough. New York to London, Dubai to Hong Kong.

Where 11,000 km starts

Gulfstream G650ER and G700, Bombardier Global 6000 and Global 7500, Falcon 8X. Twelve to nineteen passengers, 11,000 km at the entry point and past 14,000 km at the top. Three or four zones, 1.88 to 1.95 m of cabin height, a bed aft, two lavatories and crew rest. The G650 holds a 1,300 m cabin altitude against 2,400 m in an older heavy jet, which is most of the difference between landing in Tokyo ready to work and landing wrung out. Connectivity is fitted tail by tail, so ask what is on the actual aircraft.

Global 6000 and Falcon 8X open London to Singapore and New York to Tokyo. Dubai to Sydney and Hong Kong to New York are the top of the class only, the G650ER, G700 and Global 7500, and even then westbound winds can put the stop back in. At maximum takeoff weight these aircraft want 1,800 to 2,000 m, and a short or hot field trims fuel or passengers.

What a VIP airliner needs from the airport

Boeing BBJ, Airbus ACJ319neo and ACJ TwoTwenty, Embraer Lineage 1000E. A VIP conversion carries 18 to 50 people with 2.10 m or more of cabin height, a bedroom, a conference table and a shower on most BBJ and ACJ aircraft. Denser shuttle layouts take 50 to 100 for teams, film crews and delegations, and an ACJ319neo ranges past 12,000 km. The binding question is the airport: 2,000 to 2,500 m of runway plus stands, steps, ground power and handling for a narrowbody. St Moritz Samedan cannot take one at all, so pick the airport first and the aircraft second.

How to choose your class

Six things settle the class before anyone looks at a specific tail number.

• Seats and bags together. Eight adults with hard cases are a different request from eight with cabin bags, and skis, golf bags, cellos and camera cases fail on dimensions before kilos.
• Range on a real day. Published range assumes about four passengers and full reserves, so filling the seats costs range before the wind does. Take ten to fifteen percent off for a normal day, twenty to twenty-five westbound in winter, and let the operator run the numbers the day before, when the stop is actually decided.
• Both ends of the route. St Moritz Samedan (SMV) sits at 1,707 m elevation. Aspen (ASE) caps wingspan at 95 ft, which rules out the G650 and Global 7500 regardless of runway. Greek and Caribbean islands cap you well below the class.
• The length of the day, not just the leg. Crew duty limits, not range, decide whether a multi-stop day works: past roughly a fourteen-hour duty you are buying a second crew or a night stop.
• Time in the seat. Under three hours a light jet is fine. Past five, a stand-up cabin and an enclosed lavatory change how you arrive. Past eight, you want a flat bed.
• What the quote covers. Class is the biggest driver of what a trip costs, and the steps between classes are large. The figure covers the whole trip, not the hours on board: positioning legs, crew overnights, handling, landing fees, de-icing, catering and ground waiting.

AeroJet Me is a broker with no aircraft of our own to keep busy, so the recommendation follows the mission. We work only with operators holding a current ARGUS or Wyvern rating, and every trip gets a tail-and-crew report on the actual aircraft and pilots.

Class is only half the answer: a midsize already on the field can come in under a light jet ferried two hours empty, so we check what is positioned near you on the date.

Send the charter desk a route and a headcount and we will come back with two or three types and why.