Private jets by the numbers

London City Airport requires a 5.5-degree approach, nearly twice the standard 3 degrees, and only specially approved jets such as the Falcon 7X, 8X and Citation family may land there.

Manufacturers delivered 854 business jets in 2025, an 11.8 percent rise, and general-aviation billings hit a record $35.7 billion.

Mark Cuban bought a $40 million Gulfstream V by email in 1999 without seeing it, which Guinness recorded as the largest e-commerce transaction ever.

A Gulfstream G650ER burns roughly 470 US gallons of jet fuel per hour at cruise, about enough to fill 30 family cars every hour it is airborne.

A Gulfstream G650ER carries about 48,200 pounds of fuel, more than 7,000 US gallons, which is more than the aircraft weighs empty of fuel and passengers.

In 2019 a Bombardier Global 7500 flew nonstop from Sydney to Detroit, 8,225 nautical miles, the longest flight ever by a purpose-built business jet.

The Bombardier Global 8000 is certified to cruise at Mach 0.94 and reached Mach 0.95 in testing, making it the fastest civil aircraft since Concorde retired in 2003.

Cessna's Citation was nicknamed the 'Slowtation' by rivals in 1971, yet the family has since passed 8,000 deliveries, more than any other business jet line.

Warren Buffett named his first jet 'The Indefensible' after years of criticising corporate aircraft, later renamed it 'The Indispensable', then bought all of NetJets for $725 million in 1998.

Top business jets are certified to 51,000 feet, roughly 10,000 to 16,000 feet above the airliners cruising below them, which lets them fly above most weather and traffic.

The Pilatus PC-24 is certified to operate from grass, gravel and dirt strips and needs under 3,000 feet of runway, opening thousands of airfields that most jets cannot use.

At 41,000 feet the Global 8000's cabin is pressurised to the equivalent of just 2,691 feet, versus 6,000 to 8,000 feet on most airliners, which manufacturers say reduces fatigue and jet lag.

Completing the interior of a VIP Boeing 787 or 747-8 can take two years and cost well over $100 million on top of the aircraft itself.

Boom's XB-1 hit Mach 1.122 in January 2025, the first civil supersonic flight since Concorde, which cruised at Mach 2.04 until 2003.

Elvis paid $250,000 for a retired Convair 880 in 1975 and then spent more than three times that on a refit with a queen-size bed and gold-plated seatbelt buckles.

New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, 12 miles from Manhattan, handled about 75,000 business-jet departures in 2025 with no scheduled airline service at all, making it the busiest private-jet airport in the United States.

A VIP Boeing 787-8 can fly 9,945 nautical miles nonstop, far enough to link any two major cities on Earth with fuel to spare.

Sustainable aviation fuel still accounted for only about 0.3 percent of global jet fuel in 2024, even as manufacturers cleared their engines to run on 100 percent blends.

The Beechcraft King Air has been in continuous production since 1964 with more than 7,600 delivered, longer than any other civil turboprop.

Paris Le Bourget, where Charles Lindbergh landed in 1927, is now Europe's busiest business aviation airport and has eight private terminals, more than any other airport in the world.

Golfer Arnold Palmer took delivery of the very first Cessna Citation X in 1996; it was the fastest civil aircraft after Concorde at Mach 0.92.

The Sultan of Brunei holds a pilot's licence and has flown his own Boeing 747-8 to international summits.

Frank Sinatra took delivery of one of the first Learjet 23s in 1965 and reportedly lent it to Elvis Presley to elope to Las Vegas in 1967.

The US Air Force has put the operating cost of the current Air Force One at roughly $200,000 per flight hour.

Drake's Boeing 767 'Air Drake' was reported to have been provided by cargo airline Cargojet in exchange for promotional appearances; it seats about 45.

Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles logs more than 230,000 takeoffs and landings a year; its runway stood in for Casablanca's airport in the 1942 film's final scene.

NetJets operates more than 800 jets and takes around 100 new deliveries a year, a bigger fleet than most of the world's airlines.

Honda spent nearly 30 years on the HondaJet before certification in 2015, and mounted the engines above the wing to free up cabin and baggage space.

FedEx began in 1973 with 14 Dassault Falcon 20s; the jet that carried the very first package, N8FE, now hangs in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

The Sultan of Brunei's Boeing 747-8 is routinely cited at around $600 million, the most expensive private aircraft ever reported.

Industry estimates say 30 to 40 percent of charter jet flights are empty repositioning legs, which is why last-minute 'empty leg' seats can sell for 25 to 75 percent off.

A pilot's initial type rating on a large business jet is a two- to four-week simulator course that can cost $30,000 to $70,000, and pilots must return for recurrent training every six to twelve months.

About 62 percent of the world's roughly 24,000 business jets are registered in the United States, and North America accounts for around 70 percent of new deliveries.

The original Learjet 23's wing came from a cancelled Swiss fighter, the FFA P-16, which is why the jet climbed like a military aircraft.

By late 2025 the average jet-card rate was about $8,300 per hour for a light jet and $12,300 for a super-midsize, before a 7.5 percent US excise tax.

Business aviation accounts for about 2 percent of aviation's emissions and roughly 0.04 percent of global man-made carbon emissions, according to its trade association.

Bill Gates has described private flying as his 'guilty pleasure' and has been reported to own two Gulfstream G650ERs while funding sustainable-fuel and carbon-capture companies to offset it.

Jet windows are oval because square corners concentrate stress; the lesson was learned the hard way when de Havilland Comet airliners broke up in flight in 1954.

Tom Cruise flew his own 1946 P-51 Mustang on camera in Top Gun: Maverick; he has held a pilot's licence since 1994.

A private jet passenger is responsible for roughly 5 to 14 times more CO2 per kilometre than an airline passenger, according to a widely cited 2021 European study.

Several light jets, including the Cirrus Vision Jet, Phenom 300 and Citation CJ series, are certified for a single pilot, and the Vision Jet can land itself at the push of a button if the pilot is incapacitated.

Learjet founder Bill Lear also co-created the first practical car radio and invented the 8-track tape cartridge before building his first jet in 1963.

The Gulfstream G650's 16 windows are 28 inches wide, among the largest on any business jet, and the G700 fits 20 of them.

A Cirrus Vision Jet, the cheapest new jet on sale at about $3 million, has one engine and a whole-airframe parachute; a Gulfstream G800 lists at more than $80 million.

A Gulfstream G600 made the first transatlantic flight on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel in November 2023; the fuel, made from waste fats, cuts lifecycle emissions by around 70 percent.

Celebrity tail numbers often hide birthdays: Elon Musk's N628TS (28 June), Kylie Jenner's N810KJ (10 August) and Michael Jordan's N236MJ (number 23, six titles).

The Gulfstream G700 cabin is 6 feet 3 inches tall and can be divided into five living areas, including a bedroom with a fixed bed and a shower.

A grilled chicken sandwich delivered to a private jet was reported to cost $177 once catering markups and delivery fees were added, an example of why in-flight catering bills routinely run to thousands of dollars.

The 1954 Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris, the first jet marketed for business use, seated four under a fighter-style sliding canopy with no aisle.

A fractional share can be as small as one-sixteenth of a jet, which buys about 50 flight hours a year.