Quick answer
Private jet from London cost for a one-way European flight runs from roughly £4,000–£6,400 to Paris up to £20,000–£44,000 to Mykonos or Santorini for a full charter. Empty legs on the same routes typically list at a third to a half of that, in line with the rule that empty legs run up to 75% below the full charter. Nice, Geneva and Paris have the most legs; the islands are summer-only. Figures are indicative.
Key takeaways
- Flight time and aircraft class set most of the price; positioning and season set where you land in each range.
- Light jets cover routes up to about two hours; the Greek islands and Málaga start at midsize.
- Empty legs typically list at a third to a half of the full-charter range on the same route.
- Nice, Paris and Geneva produce the most legs; Ibiza, Olbia and the islands are summer-only.
- Prices exclude Air Passenger Duty, airport extras and ground transfers.
Private jet from London cost: the table
Private jet from London cost depends mostly on two things: how long the flight is and which size of aircraft your group needs. The table below puts both side by side for 21 European destinations we track, with the indicative one-way full-charter range, the range an empty leg on the same route typically lists at, and how likely you are to find one. Every destination links to its own page with live legs and airport detail.
Indicative one-way ranges in pounds for the whole aircraft, before Air Passenger Duty. A one-way price includes the aircraft's positioning, so it is the flying time out and back × the house hourly band for the class (light £2,000–£3,200, midsize £3,000–£4,400, super-midsize £4,400–£6,200); Nice and Geneva use our harmonised route figures. The empty-leg column runs from a third to a half of the charter range. Flight times are approximate: the great-circle cruise estimate from Luton for each gateway plus about 20 minutes for taxi, climb and approach, rounded. Turboprops are slower; winds move every figure. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
The class column matters as much as the price. "Light / midsize" means the bottom of the range is a light jet seating five to seven, and the top is a midsize seating seven to eight. The longer routes start at midsize because a light jet runs short of comfortable range or cabin space.
How to read the price ranges
Each range is wide on purpose. The same route can be quoted at the bottom or the top depending on three things you can't see in a table:
- Where the aircraft is starting. A jet already sitting at Farnborough or Luton quotes lower than one that has to fly in from Geneva first. That positioning flight is paid for by someone, and on a full charter it is usually you.
- The date. Peak weeks, such as August on the Mediterranean, Christmas in the Alps and the big event weekends, push quotes up. Our private jet charter cost guide puts peak-period pricing at roughly 15–30% above the benchmark for the class.
- The exact aircraft. A newer light jet, or one with a bigger cabin than the class norm, sits towards the top.
The empty-leg column has no positioning cost in it at all. An empty leg is the positioning flight, which is why it sits so far below the charter range on every row. The trade, always, is that you take the route and date the aircraft is already flying.
See the indicative range for your own London route and date in a few seconds, with no account and no obligation.
Check a price →London to Nice private jet price
London to Nice is the most-flown private route out of the UK and the one most likely to produce an empty leg. The flight is about two hours, and a full charter runs at roughly £9,000–£14,000 one way on a light jet and £14,000–£22,000 on a midsize, including the aircraft's positioning. Empty legs on the corridor list at roughly £4,000–£7,000 on a light jet and £4,500–£11,000 on a midsize. Indicative; the live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
Nice is also the airport for Cannes, Monaco and, for larger jets, St-Tropez, so the same price applies to all three before the transfer. Cannes-Mandelieu and La Môle take smaller aircraft closer in. Our guide to the Nice to Saint-Tropez transfer covers the last leg.
Per person, the numbers become interesting quickly. A £5,500 empty leg on a midsize jet split six ways is about £915 a head, and even a full light-jet charter at the bottom of the range shared by six comes in at £1,500 each.
London to Ibiza private jet cost
London to Ibiza is a longer flight, at around two hours twenty, and a summer route for groups, so midsize jets dominate. A full charter is roughly £14,000–£20,500 one way and an empty leg roughly £4,700–£10,300, indicative as always. The seasonality is sharp: outbound legs cluster on Fridays and Saturdays through the summer, return legs on Sundays and Mondays, and supply all but disappears in winter.
For a group of eight, the full-charter range works out at roughly £1,750–£2,570 per person and the empty-leg range at roughly £580–£1,280. That is the arithmetic that makes Ibiza one of the best-value private routes from London when a leg lines up. Palma is a close cousin, slightly shorter and a little cheaper, with the same summer pattern.
London to Geneva private jet cost
London to Geneva is a short hop of around an hour and a half and one of the cheapest routes in the table: roughly £7,000–£12,000 one way for a full charter and £2,800–£6,000 as an empty leg; the live figure is confirmed on enquiry. It runs all year on business traffic and doubles in winter as the gateway to the western Alps.
That gateway role is why Geneva often beats flying direct to a resort field. Megève, Verbier and Gstaad are all a short helicopter or a longer drive from Geneva. Flying straight into Saanen for Gstaad or Sion for Verbier is a little longer, and the small resort fields restrict which aircraft can land, which narrows the choice and can push the quote up. Courchevel works through Chambéry or Geneva, and St Moritz through Samedan or Zurich. Our guide to flying a private jet to the Alps compares the gateways.
Empty legs follow the snow. They spike after the busy ski weekends, when aircraft that flew clients out return home, and on the opening and closing weeks of the season.
The rest of the table: city breaks and the long Mediterranean
Paris is the shortest and cheapest route here, about an hour to Le Bourget and roughly £4,000–£6,400 one way on a light jet. It is one of the busiest business corridors in Europe, so short-notice legs turn over constantly. Milan, Barcelona and Rome are steady, year-round markets with moderate empty-leg supply.
The far end of the table is where midsize and super-midsize aircraft take over. Marbella flies into Málaga at around two hours forty. Olbia for the Costa Smeralda is a summer-only market. The Greek routes, Athens, Mykonos and Santorini, are well over three hours and price at roughly £20,000–£44,000 one way for a full charter. A light jet can technically reach some of them, but with a full cabin and luggage most operators will quote midsize or larger.
Light jet or midsize: which do you need?
Match the aircraft to the group and the distance, not to the brochure. A rough guide from our cost pages:
- Up to about two hours with four to six people: a light jet does the job and keeps you at the bottom of each range. See light jet charter cost.
- Six to eight people, or anything over two hours: a midsize gives you more cabin, more luggage space and the range to fly without a stop. See midsize jet charter cost.
- The Greek islands with a full group: a super-midsize is the comfortable option.
The price difference between classes on the same route can be several thousand pounds, and the extra cabin often goes unused on a 90-minute hop. Our guide to how many seats on a private jet each class offers shows what they actually hold.
One way, return, or a leg each way?
The table prices one direction because that is how empty legs are sold, but most trips from London are returns. On the short routes, a return charter with the aircraft waiting a day or two is often cheaper than two separate one-way charters, because the operator avoids two empty positioning flights. Over a longer stay that logic flips: paying for an aircraft and crew to wait a week costs more than letting it go and booking the return separately.
The setup that saves most is a mix. Book the leg with the fixed date, often the outbound for an event or a wedding, as a charter, and watch the flexible direction for an empty leg. Aircraft drop clients in Nice, Ibiza and Geneva constantly and then need to come back to London, which is exactly the direction most travellers need at the end of a trip. Our guide to finding an empty leg return flight covers how to pair the two.
A worked example: four friends flying London to Nice on a fixed Friday book a light jet one way at around £9,000 to £14,000. They set an alert for the Sunday or Monday return and catch a light-jet leg at around £4,000 to £7,000. If they were staying only a night, a return with the aircraft waiting would cost little more than the one way; over a long weekend in peak season, the leg home is the cheaper route, at the price of some flexibility on the way back.
What the table doesn't include
Every range above is the aircraft price for one direction, so three things can sit on top:
- Air Passenger Duty. All the destinations here are in band A. At current HMRC rates that is £15 per passenger at the reduced rate or £32 at the standard rate. The £142 higher rate currently applies only to aircraft of 20 tonnes or more with fewer than 19 seats, which rules out light and midsize jets. Source: GOV.UK APD rates. HMRC has confirmed that business jets of 5.7 tonnes and above will move to the higher rate from the start of the next tax year, at the time of writing. Our guide to private jet air passenger duty and VAT covers the detail.
- Airport-side extras. Landing and handling at premium or event-week airports, de-icing on winter departures, and crew overnight costs if the aircraft waits. Our guide to private jet hidden fees breaks each one down.
- The ground transfer. The helicopter from Nice to Monaco or Geneva to a ski resort is a separate booking.
When a private jet from London isn't worth it
A table of prices can make every route look tempting, so here is the honest counterweight. For one or two people travelling light on a fixed date, a private jet from London rarely makes financial sense on the short routes. London to Paris and Brussels are well served by Eurostar from St Pancras, and Nice, Geneva and the Spanish airports have frequent scheduled flights from several London airports. Even at the bottom of a range, a whole aircraft split two ways costs many times a flexible airline fare.
The case improves quickly with numbers and with friction. Four to eight people sharing the aircraft, a resort field the airlines don't serve, bulky kit such as skis or golf clubs, children, pets, or a schedule that can't wait for the next departure: each of these narrows the gap or removes it. A flexible date in the direction aircraft are already flying narrows it further, because an empty leg removes the positioning cost entirely.
If none of that applies, fly scheduled and keep the private option for the trips where it earns its price. We would rather you came back for the right trip than paid for the wrong one.
How likely is an empty leg on your route?
The odds column is our read of how often legs appear on each corridor, based on where aircraft actually reposition. Three patterns drive it:
- Volume. Nice, Paris and Geneva see so much private traffic that something is usually repositioning. These are the routes where a flexible traveller has the best chance.
- Season. Ibiza, Olbia, Mykonos and Santorini are busy from late spring to early autumn and quiet otherwise. The Alpine fields are the mirror image.
- Airport size. Small resort fields like Saanen and Samedan see fewer movements, so a leg into the nearby big airport is far likelier than one into the resort itself.
Even on the best corridors, most empty legs surface a few days to a few weeks before departure, many only 24–72 hours ahead, and on busy routes they can sell within hours. Our guides to empty legs by season and how to find empty legs cover the calendar and the method. If your dates can't move, a full charter from the table above is the dependable choice, and an empty leg is a bonus, not a plan.
Pick a London route from the table and we'll watch it for you, emailing the moment a matching empty leg lists.
Set up a route alert →Frequently asked questions
How much does a private jet from London cost?
For the European routes in this guide, roughly £4,000–£6,400 one way to Paris at the short end and £20,000–£44,000 to the Greek islands at the long end, for a full charter. Empty legs on the same routes typically list at a third to a half of those figures. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
What is the London to Ibiza private jet cost?
Roughly £14,000–£20,500 one way for a full charter on a midsize jet, and roughly £4,700–£10,300 as an empty leg. Supply is strongly seasonal, with most legs from June to September.
What is the London to Nice private jet price?
Roughly £9,000–£14,000 one way on a light jet and £14,000–£22,000 on a midsize. Empty legs list at about £4,000–£7,000 on a light jet and £4,500–£11,000 on a midsize, and London to Nice is the corridor where they appear most often. The live figure is confirmed on enquiry.
What is the London to Geneva private jet cost?
Roughly £7,000–£12,000 one way for a full charter on a light or midsize jet and £2,800–£6,000 as an empty leg. Prices and empty-leg supply both rise in the ski season.
Do these prices include Air Passenger Duty?
No. APD is charged per passenger on top. For these band A destinations, current rates are £15 or £32 per passenger for light and midsize jets, depending on seat pitch.
Are the prices one way or return?
One way, for the whole aircraft. A return can cost less than two one-ways on short routes if the aircraft waits for you, because the operator avoids flying home empty.
Is a return cheaper than two one-way flights from London?
On short routes with a stay of a day or two, usually yes, because the aircraft can wait rather than fly home empty. For longer stays, two one-ways, or a charter out and an empty leg back, often cost less.
Which London airport is cheapest to fly from?
It depends on where the aircraft is based more than on the airport itself. Farnborough and Biggin Hill are dedicated business-aviation fields with higher fees; Luton and Stansted mix commercial and private traffic. Staying open to all of them improves your chances of a positioned aircraft or an empty leg.
Can I fly a light jet to the Greek islands from London?
Some light jets can reach them, but at over three hours with luggage, most operators quote a midsize or super-midsize for comfort and range. That is why those routes start higher in the table.
Does a short-stay return cost much more than one way?
Often not. A same-day or short-stay return on the same aircraft involves roughly the same flying as a one way, because the aircraft flies home either way. A return only roughly doubles the price when the aircraft goes home between the two legs.
