October 17, 2024
The hourly price for guaranteed capped/fixed-rate jet cards increased for the third consecutive quarter, per Private Jet Card Comparisons.
Published jet card pricing increased for the third consecutive quarter by 1.4% at the end of the third quarter, compared to the end of the second quarter here in 2024. Based on the Private Jet Card Comparisons database of over 80 providers and over 500 program options, the average hourly rate was $11,102.
The analysis includes U.S. programs that offer guaranteed availability and fixed or capped hourly rates.
Hourly fixed/capped rates are 32.1% higher than in Q4 2020 when the CARES Act waived the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax.
However, the hourly prices are just 25.3% more than in Q4 2019 before COVID.
READ: How bad are jet card price increases?
The rate increases were countered by a 0.2% decrease in Daily Minimums and a 0.4% decline in Peak Days.
The decline in Daily Minimums benefits flyers making shorter flights.
Fewer Peak Days mean customers have fewer restricted days and are less likely to hit peak day surcharges or longer callouts to book or cancel flights.
There is also an anecdotal uptick in the deals providers are offering—more on that in our final thoughts.
The average hourly rate for jet cards increased from $10,954 at the end of Q2 2024 to $11,102 at the end of Q3 2024.
That compared to a pre-Covid average of $8,860 per hour.
The rates are from Private Jet Card Comparisons’ proprietary database of over 80 providers and over 500 programs.
Rates include the 7.5% Federal Excise Tax if charged additionally to published rates.
Fuel surcharges are included on the same basis.
The rates are tracked across seven aircraft categories: Turboprop, Very Light Jets, Light Jets, Midsize Jets, Super-Midsize Jets, Large Cabin Jets, and Ultra Long Range jets.
Turboprops carry the lowest average hourly rate at $6,799 per hour (table below).
At the other end, Ultra Long Range jets average $19,104 per hour.
| HOURLY RATES ($) | Dec-19 | Dec-20 | Dec-21 | Dec-22 | Dec-23 | March-24 | June-24 | 24-Sep |
| Turboprop | 4,762 | 4,454 | 5,982 | 7,348 | 6,269 | 6,263 | 6,533 | 6,799 |
| Very Light | 5,653 | 5,102 | 6,724 | 8,379 | 7,298 | 7,454 | 7,496 | 7,742 |
| Light | 6,023 | 5,600 | 6,978 | 8,462 | 7,918 | 7,918 | 7,993 | 8,078 |
| Midsize | 7,531 | 6,961 | 7,985 | 9,806 | 9,168 | 9,169 | 9,482 | 9,534 |
| Super Midsize | 10,042 | 9,190 | 10,570 | 12,675 | 11,793 | 11,878 | 12,307 | 12,399 |
| Large | 13,033 | 12,109 | 13,229 | 16,108 | 15,339 | 15,250 | 15,252 | 15,278 |
| Ultra-Long-Haul | 16,834 | 15,316 | 17,339 | 20,646 | 18,753 | 18,815 | 18,895 | 19,104 |
| Overall | 8,860 | 8,405 | 9,706 | 11,748 | 10,754 | 10,862 | 10,954 | 11,102 |
| Without Turboprops | 9,193 | 8,631 | 9,850 | 11,955 | 11,030 | 11,143 | 11,230 | 11,393 |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
Jet card hourly rates increased by 1.4% from the previous quarter, putting them at 3.2% above the end of 2023 (chart below).
While 5.5% below Q4 2022, the contracted hourly rates were 32.1% higher than Q4 2020 during the CARES Act FET waiver.
The hourly rates are now 25.3% higher than Q4 2019, before the pandemic.
| HOURLY RATES | Change from June 24 | Change from March 24 | Change from Dec 23 | Change from Dec 22 | Change from Dec. 21 | Change from Dec. 20 | Change from Dec. 19 |
| Turboprop | 4.1% | 8.6% | 8.5% | -7.5% | 13.7% | 52.6% | 42.8% |
| Very Light | 3.3% | 3.9% | 6.1% | -7.6% | 15.1% | 51.7% | 37.0% |
| Light | 1.1% | 2.0% | 2.0% | -4.5% | 15.8% | 44.3% | 34.1% |
| Midsize | 0.6% | 4.0% | 4.0% | -2.8% | 19.4% | 37.0% | 26.6% |
| Super Midsize | 0.8% | 4.4% | 5.1% | -2.2% | 17.3% | 34.9% | 23.5% |
| Large | 0.2% | 0.2% | -0.4% | -5.2% | 15.5% | 26.2% | 17.2% |
| Ultra-Long-Haul | 1.1% | 1.5% | 1.9% | -7.5% | 10.2% | 24.7% | 13.5% |
| Overall | 1.4% | 2.2% | 3.2% | -5.5% | 14.4% | 32.1% | 25.3% |
| Without Turboprops | 1.4% | 2.2% | 3.3% | -4.7% | 15.7% | 32.0% | 23.9% |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
Turboprop pricing saw the biggest quarter-to-quarter increase, up 4.1% during the 90 days.
Very Light Jets also saw a 3.3% increase in prices sequentially.
Large Cabin jets saw the smallest increase at 0.2%.
Light Jet hourly prices were up 1.1% in the quarter.
That put the popular category 34.1% higher than before the pandemic, an increase of $2,055 per hour.
By contrast, prices for Ultra-Long-Haul jets climbed by 13.5%, which translates to $2,270 more per hour.
The good news for flyers is that Daily Minimums continue to fall.
Daily Minimums are the minimum time you are charged in a single day, even if your flight is under the minimum.
This favors flyers making shorter flights.
According to our latest research with subscribers, 34.8% use private flights instead of long drives in the car.
For Light Jets, Midsize Jets, and Super Midsize Jets, Daily Minimums are now lower than in December 2019 (chart below).
| DAILY MINIMUMS (minutes) | Dec-19 | Dec-20 | Dec-21 | Dec-22 | Dec-23 | March-24 | 24-Jun | 24-Sep |
| Light | 78.1 | 79.5 | 87.9 | 75.8 | 71.9 | 72.9 | 66.7 | 68.4 |
| Midsize | 83.7 | 84.1 | 95.8 | 83 | 79.7 | 79 | 76.1 | 76.0 |
| Super Midsize | 95.7 | 95.3 | 111.5 | 94.1 | 96.5 | 95.1 | 91.9 | 91.6 |
| Large | 101.4 | 98.6 | 125.6 | 110.2 | 121.4 | 121.3 | 119.8 | 119.0 |
| Overall | 86.2 | 85.4 | 103.3 | 94.7 | 89.4 | 89.7 | 86.3 | 86.1 |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
Daily Minimums declined overall by 0.2%.
Only Light Jets saw an increase, up 2.5%.
Still, Light Jet Daily Minimums are now 12.4% lower than in 2019.
What’s more, they are 22.2% below Q4 2021.
| DAILY MINIMUMS (minutes) | Change from June 24 | Change from March 24 | Change from Dec 23 | Change from Dec 22 | Change from Dec. 21 | Change from Dec. 20 | Change from Dec. 19 |
| Light | 2.5% | -6.2% | -4.9% | -9.8% | -22.2% | -14.0% | -12.4% |
| Midsize | -0.1% | -3.8% | -4.6% | -8.4% | -20.7% | -9.6% | -9.2% |
| Super Midsize | -0.3% | -3.7% | -5.1% | -2.7% | -17.8% | -3.9% | -4.3% |
| Large | -0.7% | -1.9% | -2.0% | 8.0% | -5.3% | 20.7% | 17.4% |
| Overall | -0.2% | -4.0% | -3.7% | -9.1% | -16.7% | 0.8% | -0.1% |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
Large Cabin jets saw the biggest quarter-to-quarter dip, down seven-tenths of a point.
The average number of annual Peak Days was 46.2 dates in our latest analysis, continuing a gradual decline.
At its peak, programs were averaging 55.6 dates (see below).
| PEAK DAYS (hours) | Dec-19 | Dec-20 | Dec-21 | Dec-22 | Dec-23 | March-24 | 24-Jun | 24-Sep |
| Overall | 22.8 | 24.4 | 39.3 | 55.6 | 47.4 | 47.5 | 46.4 | 46.2 |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
That’s a big increase from the 22.8 peak days at the end of 2019.
The 0.4% decline in the past quarter still leaves peak days at 102.6% more than pre-Covid.
| PEAK DAYS (hours) | Change from June 24 | Change from March 24 | Change from Dec 23 | Change from Dec 22 | Change from Dec. 21 | Change from Dec. 20 | Change from Dec. 19 |
| Overall | -0.4% | -2.7% | -2.5% | -17.0% | 17.6% | 89.3% | 102.6% |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
Peak Days often have surcharges, an effective increase in your jet card price.
Virtually all programs have longer callouts for booking and canceling on Peak Days.
Providers can typically move departures between two and four hours in either direction on the high-demand dates.
Non-peak Callouts, the minimum time you can book to get your contracted hourly rates, remained constant at 65.1 hours before departure.
At the end of Q2, the average Callout was 64.5 hours prior to departure.
| CALL OUTS (hours) | Dec-19 | Dec-20 | Dec-21 | Dec-22 | Dec-23 | March-24 | 24-Jun | 24-Sep |
| Overall | 23.2 | 29.0 | 55.9 | 64.7 | 69.3 | 69.2 | 64.5 | 65.1 |
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons
Callouts are now 6.1% below their Q4 2023 peak but 180% higher than pre-Covid 2019.
Back then, there were many jet cards with 8, 10, and 12-hour callouts, and the average was 23.2 hours before your flight.
Operators are battling increased costs and supply chain issues.
Demand continues to ebb.
We believe the decrease in demand is mainly driven by a drop in the operator-to-operator B2B market—not consumers.
The B2B operator demand is when fleet operators must go off-fleet to fulfill commitments to jet card and fractional customers.
Our thesis was supported by Fitch Ratings’ most recent analysis of Vista Globa’s financials.
It noted, “In 2023, Vista outperformed the market in flight hours growth, with an increase of 18%, compared with a 4% decrease for the global market. This was partly due to some of its off-fleet business coming on-fleet, in line with the company’s core strategy.”
VistaJet, NetJets, Flexjet, and Wheels Up, North America’s four biggest fractional/charter operators, were all big buyers of off-fleet flights from third-party operators.
According to our analysis of ARGUS data, NetJets and Flexjet, together, flew over 47,000 more segments in H1 2024 than in H1 2023.
Part 135 – on-demand and jet card flying by charter operators, was down by over 34,000 segments.
On Friday, NetJets announced it received its 50th new jet of 2024.
Likewise, Flexjet, PlaneSense, Airshare, and other fractionals continue to grow their fleets.
In other words, as demand from existing customers normalized and new aircraft entered the fleet, operators with fractional and jet card programs didn’t have to go off-fleet to other operators.
While not a fractional, Wheels Up was also a big buyer of off-fleet flights to satisfy guarantees to its jet card clients.
It spent $66.9 million in the first half of 2023 buying flights on FlyExclusive, according to financial filings by the latter.
What’s the point?
Jet Card broker programs, which were choked by a lack of supply in 2021 and 2022, are now in a better position to buy lifts at reasonable prices.
Charter operators, both those with cards and those without, need to replace the huge amounts of B2B lift from big fractional and jet card operators who were in the off-fleet market.
As discussed above, we’ve seen a rollback in Daily MInimums and Peak Days.
However, guaranteed program providers are being more cautious about decreasing Callouts.
Why?
In our opinion, when an operator gets a last-minute call from a flight provider with a guaranteed jet card or fractional program, they know they are in a bind and can price the flights based on the buyer’s needs to fulfill their jet card or fractional contract.
We have been seeing anecdotal evidence that the amount you can negotiate with a jet card provider has increased.
From the days in 2021 and 2022 when some providers either shuttered their programs or were not accepting new customers, last year, we started seeing the old standard: buy 25 hours, get one hour free.
That translates to a 4% discount on jet card pricing.
We are now seeing major providers offering discounts that range between 8-to-10%.
In other words, you have more negotiating leverage for consumers currently in the market.
At the same time, the failures of JetSuite, Jet It, and now Volato’s turmoil are a good reminder not to buy more jet card hours than you plan to consume in the next six to 18 months.
READ: What happens to your jet card and private jet membership deposits?
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