As demand drops, the average hourly rate for jet cards fell to $11,165 per hour, including fuel surcharges and tax.
Here’s some good news for jet card flyers. Jet card pricing is finally coming down, dropping 5.2% from December 2022.
It marks the first time hourly rates have decreased since the second half of 2020. That’s when the CARES Act removed the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax.
The drop comes as fractional and flight hours continue declining from last year’s records, according to WingX and Argus.
Rates for jets were only down 4.3% as turboprop hourly rates fell 12.7%.
The turboprop rates were partially pulled down by Wheels Up’s new King Air Connect program, which reduced capped hourly rates by 15-17% but is limited to east of the Mississippi.
READ: You’re Fired: Are You An Unprofitable Jet Card Customer
The average Fixed/Capped Rate, Guaranteed Availability Jet Card pricing also beat On-Demand Charter rates (Dynamic Pricing) in eight of the 12 flight scenarios week track.
Other good news: The number of Peak Days also continued their downward trend.
They dropped 3.6% from Q4 2022 to 53.7.
Daily Minimums also dropped from December 2022, down 6.0% to an average of 89 minutes.
Average Non-Peak Day Advance Reservation Lead Time went the wrong way.
It increased by 2.6% from December to 66.4 hours.
All details are outlined in the tables below.
Q1 2023 Jet Card hourly rates, including hourly cost, fuel surcharge, supplemental charges, and the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax.
Rates are based on providers with fixed or capped hourly rates and guaranteed availability.
Overall, the average hourly rate for fixed/capped rate jet card programs is now $11,748. Taking out turboprops, the jet rate is $11,955 per hour.
| Cabin Size | March 2023 | Change vs. Dec. 2022 | Change vs. Dec. 2021 | Change vs. Dec. 2020 |
| Turboprop | $ 6,518 | -12.7% | 8.2% | 31.7% |
| Very Light | $ 7,702 | -8.8% | 12.7% | 33.8% |
| Light | $ 8,047 | -5.2% | 13.3% | 30.4% |
| Midsize | $ 9,419 | -4.1% | 15.2% | 26.1% |
| Super Midsize | $ 12,266 | -3.3% | 13.8% | 25.1% |
| Large | $ 15,900 | -1.3% | 16.8% | 23.8% |
| Ultra-Long-Haul | $ 19,021 | -8.5% | 8.8% | 19.5% |
| Overall | $ 11,165 | -5.2% | 13.1% | 24.7% |
| Without Turboprops | $ 11,466 | -4.3% | 14.1% | 24.7% |
In terms of comparing Jet Cards that have fixed/capped hourly rates with guaranteed availability with on-demand charter flights priced by market variables, jet cards gained an edge.
While On-Demand Charter offered lower-than-average jet card prices in 7 of 12 scenarios in December, this time around, the jet cards were lower in 8 of 12 instances.
As usual, on-demand pricing works best in high-density routes like Miami-New York.
| Route | Type | Flight Minutes | On-Demand Charter-Low | On-Demand Charter-High | Jet Card Average |
| OPF-TEB | Light | 157 | $ 16,807 | $ 28,044 | $ 22,666 |
| OKC-PIT | Light | 133 | $ 24,980 | $ 27,430 | $ 19,447 |
| BFI-PSP | Light | 141 | $ 23,758 | $ 24,730 | $ 20,520 |
| OPF-TEB | Midsize | 157 | $ 27,535 | $ 31,694 | $ 26,530 |
| PDK-HOU | Midsize | 107 | $ 22,102 | $ 28,854 | $ 18,681 |
| ASE-MSY | Midsize | 163 | $ 33,485 | $ 35,955 | $ 27,472 |
| OPF-TEB | Super Mid | 145 | $ 27,198 | $ 30,455 | $ 32,096 |
| OKC-PIT | Super Mid | 120 | $ 29,781 | $ 46,264 | $ 26,985 |
| BFI-PSP | Super Mid | 133 | $ 27,258 | $ 38,138 | $ 29,643 |
| OPF-TEB | Large | 151 | $ 36,604 | $ 40,667 | $ 43,195 |
| ASE-MSY | Large | 132 | $ 49,286 | $ 54,039 | $ 38,160 |
| BFI-PSP | Large | 115 | $ 48,639 | $ 49,714 | $ 33,655 |
| Q1 2023 | $ 30,619 | $ 36,332 | $ 28,254 | ||
| Q4 2022 | $ 27,853 | $ 40,868 | $ 28,363 |
Between Opa Locka and Teterboro, two of the busiest private jet airports in the U.S., the lowest on-demand pricing beat fixed/capped rate jet card average one-way cost in all categories, except midsize jets.
The only other win for dynamic pricing was on super midsize jets between Boeing Field in Seattle and Palm Springs.
Of course, with jet cards, the devil is in the details.
There was good news when it came to Peak Days.
Peak days typically include longer lead time to book, stricter cancelation terms, and different pricing, including surcharges, although it varies widely.
The average number of these high-demand dates dropped by 3.6% to 53.7 days. However, that’s still 57.5% higher than pre-Covid numbers in Q4 2019.
| (in days) | Dec. 2019 | June 2022 | Dec. 2022 | March 2023 | Change vs. Dec. 2022 | Change vs. Dec. 2019 |
| Average of Total 2023 Peak/High-Demand/Blackout Days | 22.8 | 53.2 | 55.7 | 53.7 | -3.6% | 57.5% |
One area providers are not rushing to change is the lead time to book flights.
With operational and staffing issues still throwing monkey wrenches, Non-Peak Callouts increased slightly to 66.4 hours, up 2.6%.
That’s 65.1% higher than in December 2019.
Callouts are the minimum time to book and get guaranteed availability with contracted rates.
| In hours | Dec. 2019 | June 2022 | Dec. 2022 | March 2023 | Change vs. Dec. 2022 | Change vs. Dec. 2019 |
| Average of PSA Non-Peak Day Advance Reservations Lead Time (in hours) | 23.2 | 62.9 | 64.6 | 66.4 | 2.6% | 65.1% |
However, the best news for flyers is that Daily Minimums continue to drop and are now just 3.4% higher than in December 2019 at an average of 89 minutes.
For light jet flyers, the daily minimum dropped by 7.9% from Q4 2022 to 70 minutes, putting them below pre-Covid numbers.
| In Minutes | Dec. 2019 | June 2022 | Dec. 2022 | March 2023 | Change vs. Dec. 2022 | Change vs. Dec. 2019 |
| Light Jets | 78 | 104 | 76 | 70 | -7.9% | -11.2% |
| Midsize | 84 | 105 | 83 | 79 | -5.4% | -6.3% |
| SuperMid | 96 | 110 | 94 | 93 | -1.0% | -2.8% |
| Large | 101 | 131 | 110 | 123 | 10.6% | 17.7% |
| All | 86 | 109 | 95 | 89 | -6.0% | 3.5% |
Since the Daily Minimum is what you pay even if you fly less on that day, it benefits short flyers.
As demand surged, light jet daily minimums spiked to 104 minutes in June 2022.
