Quick answer
Heavy jet charter cost is typically £6,200–£9,000 per flying hour for large cabin jets such as the Gulfstream G450 and Falcon 900, and £9,000–£14,000 for ultra-long-range aircraft like the G650. A one-way London–New York charter typically runs £60,000–£95,000 all in; a one-way empty leg on the crossing commonly lists at £18,000–£45,000. Indicative only — the live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
Key takeaways
- Heavy jets charter at roughly £6,200–£9,000 per flying hour; ultra-long-range jets such as the G650 at £9,000–£14,000.
- “Gulfstream” covers several classes — the G450 is heavy, the G650 is ultra-long-range, and the price gap is large.
- BBJ rates vary so widely that only a specific quote for a specific aircraft is meaningful.
- On long trips, return positioning, fuel, crew costs and higher-rate APD make up a large share of the price.
- Heavy-jet empty legs are rarer than light-jet ones but carry some of the deepest discounts available.
What does heavy jet charter cost?
A heavy jet — also called a large cabin jet — is the class built for long distances and larger groups: ten to fourteen passengers, a stand-up cabin you can walk through, separate seating zones, a full galley, and range to cross continents. Above it sits the ultra-long-range class, the aircraft that can fly London to the Gulf or the US West Coast nonstop.
Indicative heavy jet charter rates run at roughly £6,200–£9,000 per flying hour; ultra-long-range aircraft such as the Gulfstream G650 run at roughly £9,000–£14,000. Those are the same benchmarks used in our private jet charter cost guide, and they cover the aircraft and crew only. Fuel surcharges, airport fees, repositioning, crew overnight costs and taxes are added on top — and on long trips, those add-ons are large.
At route level, a one-way London–New York trip in a heavy or ultra-long-range jet typically comes to roughly £60,000–£95,000 on full charter, once fees, taxes and positioning are added to around seven to eight hours of flying. An empty leg on the same crossing, when one appears, typically lists at £18,000–£45,000 one way. The worked example below shows how those figures are built.
A short definition: large cabin jet charter cost is the price of a whole heavy or ultra-long-range aircraft and its crew, billed by flying hour. You pay for the aircraft, not the seats, which is why the class only makes financial sense with a group or a genuinely long trip.
Heavy jet charter cost by aircraft, including the G650
The aircraft you are most likely to be offered for a heavy or ultra-long-range charter from London are below, with published specifications. Certified maximum seats are often higher than a charter cabin is actually fitted for, so ask for the real layout.
| Aircraft | Class | Seats (published max) | Max range | Charter / hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gulfstream G450 | Heavy | 14 | 4,350 nm | £6,200–£9,000 |
| Falcon 900LX | Heavy | Up to 19 | 4,750 nm | £6,200–£9,000 |
| Gulfstream G650 / G650ER | Ultra-long-range | Up to 19 | 7,000 nm / 7,500 nm | £9,000–£14,000 |
| Global 7500 | Ultra-long-range | Up to 19 | Over 7,000 nm | £9,000–£14,000 |
| Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) | VIP airliner | 19 or more, by layout | Up to about 6,600 nm (BBJ MAX 8) | Priced individually; see below |
Rates are indicative GBP benchmarks; where a type sits in its band depends on age, cabin and positioning. Ranges are published maximums at light loads. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
Specification sources: Gulfstream G450, Falcon 900LX, Gulfstream G650 and G650ER, Global 7500 and BBJ MAX 8.
Gulfstream charter cost
"Gulfstream" covers several classes, so the Gulfstream charter cost depends on which one. The G450 is a true heavy jet, seating up to fourteen with 4,350 nm of published range — enough for London to the US East Coast — and it prices within the £6,200–£9,000 heavy band. The G650 and G650ER are ultra-long-range aircraft and price in the £9,000–£14,000 band. If a quote simply says "Gulfstream", ask which model, because the difference across a transatlantic trip runs to tens of thousands of pounds.
Gulfstream G650 charter cost and price per hour
The G650 is the aircraft most people mean when they picture a private jet. Its published range is 7,000 nm, or 7,500 nm for the G650ER, with a top cruise of Mach 0.925 and up to nineteen seats across as many as four cabin zones. The G650 price per hour sits in the ultra-long-range band of roughly £9,000–£14,000, with newer ER airframes and fresh interiors towards the top.
A Gulfstream G650 charter cost makes most sense on the trips only it (and its peers) can do nonstop: London to the West Coast, the Gulf to the US, Europe to Asia. On a London–New York run, a heavy jet such as a G450 can make the crossing for less per hour; the G650's speed and range advantages matter more as the distance grows. Using one for a two-hour European hop is possible, and some people do, but you are paying ultra-long-range rates for range you never use.
BBJ charter cost per hour
The Boeing Business Jet is an airliner fitted out as a private aircraft, and it sits outside the normal class bands. There are very few on charter, layouts vary enormously, and the price is set aircraft by aircraft. To give a sense of the spread, published US rate cards range from about US$8,500–$15,000 per hour to an estimated US$26,500–$31,600 per flight hour. That spread is the point: a BBJ charter cost per hour is only meaningful as a specific quote for a specific aircraft. If your group is twenty or more, or you need a bedroom suite for an overnight sector, it is worth asking; otherwise an ultra-long-range jet is almost always the better value.
Heavy vs ultra-long-range: where the line sits
The two classes are often blurred together as "large cabin", but they price differently and suit different trips.
- Heavy jets (Falcon 900, G450, Challenger 605 and similar) have range of roughly 4,000–5,000 nm. That covers transatlantic crossings to the East Coast, Europe to the Gulf, and anything within Europe with ease. Charter rates sit at £6,200–£9,000 an hour.
- Ultra-long-range jets (G650, Global 7500, Falcon 8X) reach 7,000 nm and beyond. They are the aircraft for London to Los Angeles, the Gulf to New York, or Europe to Asia without a stop. Rates sit at £9,000–£14,000 an hour.
The practical rule: book the class whose range matches the trip with a full cabin and reserves, not the most famous aircraft. For London to New York, a well-equipped heavy jet does the job (our private jet hire New York page covers the airports). For London to Dubai, a heavy jet is again usually sufficient; see private jet hire Dubai. Which airport to land at is compared in our guide to each private jet terminal in Dubai. For anything longer, ultra-long-range starts to justify itself.
Planning a long-haul trip? Check a live price for the whole aircraft on your route.
Check a price →From heavy jet hourly rate to a transatlantic price
On a long trip, the hourly rate is a smaller share of the total than on a short hop, because the add-ons scale up too. A heavy-jet transatlantic quote typically includes:
- Flight hours both ways, or a return positioning charge. A one-way transatlantic charter often carries the cost of the aircraft flying home empty. That alone can add a large sum.
- Fuel surcharges. On long sectors, movements in the jet fuel price are a material share of the quote.
- Crew costs. Long trips may need an augmented crew, and multi-day trips involve crew hotels and allowances.
- Landing, handling and parking at both ends, plus any overflight or navigation charges the operator passes on.
- Catering, which on a long sector is a real line rather than a nominal one.
- Taxes, including UK Air Passenger Duty. Aircraft of 20 tonnes or more with fewer than 19 seats pay the higher rate, which under the current HMRC APD rates is £142 per passenger to Band A destinations and £1,097 per passenger to Band B, which includes the US East Coast.
These are why a one-way London–New York charter runs from roughly £60,000 to £95,000 rather than a simple multiple of the hourly rate. For the full long-haul picture, including one-way versus return, see our transatlantic private jet cost guide.
Worked example: heavy jet charter cost to New York and Dubai
Long-haul quotes look opaque, but the core sum is the same as for any class: flight time multiplied by the hourly band. LunaJets' route data puts heavy and ultra-long-range jets at roughly 7 to 7½ hours between Teterboro and Luton (a G650 at about 7h, a G450 at about 7h30), and the westbound crossing into the prevailing winds is often slower. Global Charter estimates about 7h15 from London to Dubai.
| Route, outbound sector | Planning flight time | Flying-time cost, heavy jet (£6,200–£9,000/hr) | Flying-time cost, ultra-long-range (£9,000–£14,000/hr) |
|---|---|---|---|
| London – New York | about 7–7½ hours | £43,400–£67,500 | £63,000–£105,000 |
| London – Dubai | about 7¼ hours | £45,000–£65,300 | £65,300–£101,500 |
Flying-time part only: planning flight time × the indicative hourly band, rounded, for one crossing. Positioning, fuel surcharge, fees, crew costs, catering and APD are added on top. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
Now add the lines that scale with distance. For twelve passengers in a heavy jet, UK Air Passenger Duty at the higher rate is £1,097 each to Band B, which HMRC lists as including both the United States and the United Arab Emirates: about £13,160 for the group. Landing, handling and catering at both ends add more, and if nobody needs the aircraft at the far end, the operator has to recover the cost of getting it home. On a busy corridor such as New York the aircraft often picks up onward work, so the full empty return is not always charged; that is how a heavy-jet flying-time cost in the mid-forties to the sixties becomes a one-way quote of £60,000–£95,000. On Dubai, where an aircraft that has to come home empty is charged for flying out and back, a one-way heavy-jet quote can approach £90,000–£130,000 before fees. A same-day or short-stay return on the same aircraft costs about the same as that one way; a return only roughly doubles if the jet goes home between legs.
The same arithmetic explains why the right aircraft matters so much. On New York, an ultra-long-range jet's flying-time cost alone can exceed the all-in price of a heavy jet, for perhaps half an hour saved. On Dubai the picture is similar. Ultra-long-range only pays its way when the route is beyond a heavy jet's comfortable range with your load, such as London to the US West Coast.
Heavy jets from London, and how the calendar moves the price
Most heavy and ultra-long-range charters from the capital use Farnborough or Stansted. Farnborough is a dedicated business-aviation airport and Europe's busiest for business jets, with a lot of heavy, super-midsize and midsize traffic. Stansted mixes commercial and private operations and is strong for longer-range repositioning. Luton handles all classes too. Which one gives the best price usually comes down to where a suitable aircraft is already parked, so stay open to all three if you can.
Season matters as much for large cabin jets as for small ones. Quotes around Christmas and New Year, Easter, August and major events routinely run 15–30% above the benchmark. Heavy jets are a small fleet, so on peak dates the choice narrows quickly and positioning costs climb as aircraft come from further away. If your dates can move by a few days either side of a peak, the saving on a long-haul charter can be substantial in absolute terms.
The other side of the calendar works in your favour: the days after a big holiday period produce a wave of repositioning flights home, and that is when long-haul empty legs are most likely to appear.
Heavy jet charter cost per person
The heavy class is where the per-person view changes the conversation most. A one-way London–New York full charter at £60,000–£95,000, split twelve ways, comes to roughly £5,000–£7,900 each before APD. On an empty leg at £18,000–£45,000, it is roughly £1,500–£3,750 each. Add the £1,097 higher-rate APD per passenger on a Band B departure and you have a realistic per-head budget.
With four people, the same full charter is £15,000–£23,750 each — a long way above any commercial fare. That is the honest summary of the class: superb for a full cabin on a long trip, very expensive for a couple. Our private jet cost per person guide runs the same maths for every class.
Heavy jet empty legs: the deepest discounts
Heavy and ultra-long-range jets produce fewer empty legs than light jets, simply because there are fewer of them flying. But when one appears, the discount tends to be among the deepest anywhere. A heavy jet repositioning across the Atlantic empty carries an enormous cost the operator wants to offset. A UK-originating heavy-jet empty leg typically lists at around £12,000–£20,000 or more, roughly 40–50% below the equivalent charter; on a transatlantic crossing, legs typically list at £18,000–£45,000 against £60,000–£95,000 for the one-way charter.
The constraints are the usual ones, amplified. The leg sets the date, and on a transatlantic route there may be only a handful a month. If your plans can move by a few days, a route alert on the crossing is worth setting early.
Transatlantic legs are rare and go quickly. Set an alert and we'll tell you when one lists on your route.
Set up a route alert →When a heavy jet is worth it, and when it isn't
We don't sell jets, so this is the plain version.
Worth it: a group of ten or more on a long sector; an overnight flight where the ability to sleep flat changes the next day; a trip with a lot of luggage or equipment; a route that genuinely needs the range. In each of those cases, a heavy or ultra-long-range jet is the right tool, and per head it can be closer to premium commercial than people expect.
Not worth it: a couple on a European weekend; any sector under three hours where a super-midsize or midsize would do; booking a G650 for the name when a G450 has the range. If you are flying within Europe, our midsize jet charter cost and light jet charter cost guides will usually show a much better answer, and for short island hops our turboprop charter cost guide may point to the smarter choice.
How to check a heavy jet quote
At these prices, check the details as carefully as the number:
- The exact aircraft and its cabin. Model, year, refurbishment date and real seating layout — not "large cabin or similar".
- What is in the price. Fuel, positioning, crew, catering, fees and taxes, each included or itemised.
- The return positioning on one-way trips. It is often the biggest single line.
- The operator. UK operators hold an air operator certificate listed by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Independent safety audits are also worth knowing about — see our guide to ARGUS vs Wyvern safety ratings.
- Cancellation terms. On a five- or six-figure charter, the deposit schedule matters.
Get those right and heavy jet charter cost becomes a number you can compare with confidence.
Frequently asked questions
What is the hourly rate for a heavy jet?
Indicative heavy jet charter rates run at roughly £6,200–£9,000 per flying hour for aircraft such as the G450 and Falcon 900. Ultra-long-range jets like the G650 and Global 7500 run at roughly £9,000–£14,000. Fuel, fees, positioning and taxes are added on top.
What does a Gulfstream G650 cost per hour?
The G650 sits in the ultra-long-range band, at roughly £9,000–£14,000 per flying hour. Newer G650ER airframes and recently refurbished cabins tend to sit towards the top. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
How much does a Gulfstream charter cost?
It depends on the model. A G450 prices in the heavy band of roughly £6,200–£9,000 an hour, while a G650 prices at roughly £9,000–£14,000. Always ask which Gulfstream a quote refers to.
What does a BBJ cost to charter per hour?
There is no reliable class benchmark, because so few are on charter and layouts vary widely. Published US rate cards range from about US$8,500 to over US$30,000 per hour. Treat any figure as meaningful only once it is a specific quote for a specific aircraft.
How much is a private jet from London to New York?
A heavy or ultra-long-range jet from London to New York typically costs roughly £60,000–£95,000 one way on full charter. An empty leg on the crossing, when one appears, commonly lists at £18,000–£45,000 one way. Higher-rate APD of £1,097 per passenger applies to the UK departure.
How long does a heavy jet take from London to New York?
Roughly seven to seven and a half hours, depending on the aircraft and the winds; the westbound crossing is often slower than the return. At the heavy band the flying-time part is about £43,400–£67,500; with fees, APD and positioning, a one-way quote typically comes to £60,000–£95,000.
How much is a heavy jet from London to Dubai?
London to Dubai takes about seven and a quarter hours, so the flying-time part in a heavy jet is roughly £45,000–£65,300. If the aircraft has to fly home empty, a one-way quote is built on flying out and back, roughly £90,000–£130,000, before fees and higher-rate APD of £1,097 per passenger to Band B. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
How many people fit in a heavy jet?
Heavy jets are typically fitted for ten to fourteen passengers, and ultra-long-range jets for twelve to sixteen. Published maximums can reach nineteen, but charter cabins are usually configured with fewer, larger seats and sleeping space.
Is a heavy jet worth it for a European trip?
Rarely. On a sector under three hours, a midsize or super-midsize does the same job for a fraction of the hourly rate. A heavy jet earns its price with a large group, a lot of luggage or a genuinely long flight.
Are heavy jet empty legs cheaper than charter?
Yes, often by 40–50% or more on UK departures, and the absolute saving on a transatlantic leg can run to tens of thousands of pounds. They are less frequent than light-jet legs, so flexibility on dates and a route alert matter more.
