Flying private from anywhere

Most of the private flying this office arranges starts in New York, but a good share does not. Families fly from Dallas to Cabo, from Scottsdale to Jackson Hole, from Chicago to Naples, and from Van Nuys to Aspen. The broker’s job is the same everywhere, and so is the one fact that decides the price: where the aircraft is when you ask.

This article explains how an aircraft is found for a trip that starts anywhere, what the repositioning costs, and how to choose an airport when you have more than one.

The short version

• A broker owns no aircraft. It asks licensed Part 135 operators, across the country, which aircraft they have available and where.
• The aircraft’s position sets the price, not yours. An aircraft that is already at your airport, or within an hour of it, costs less than a better aircraft a thousand miles away.
• A positioning leg is billed at close to the full hourly rate. The aircraft burns the same fuel, and the crew are on the same duty clock, whether anyone is in the cabin.
• The nearest airport is not always the cheapest. A larger airport with more charter aircraft on the ground can be cheaper than a smaller one nearer your house.
• Flexibility is worth money. A choice of two or three departure airports and a window of a day on either side is the single biggest lever on a quote.

Where the aircraft come from

An air charter broker works with direct air carriers: companies that hold an FAA Part 135 certificate and operate aircraft they own or manage for owners. The broker is not one of them. 14 CFR 295.5 defines a broker as a person who “holds out, sells, or arranges” charter air transportation “using a direct air carrier”. The carrier keeps operational control of the flight.

When a request comes in, aircraft come from four places:

1. Operators we already know. The carriers we have vetted and flown with, with their home bases and their current schedules.
2. Aircraft already moving. A jet that has just dropped passengers 90 miles from you is the best candidate in the country, because it has to be somewhere anyway. This is where empty legs come from.
3. Marketplaces. Operators publish live availability in electronic marketplaces, which lets a broker ask dozens of carriers at once. This widens the search; it does not replace the vetting.
4. Managed fleets. Many aircraft are owned by individuals and managed by an operator that charters them when the owner is not flying. Those aircraft are often based in the owner’s home city, which is where the supply near you comes from.

Every candidate then goes through the same checks: the operator’s certificate and authority, its safety rating (see what each rating means), whether the aircraft is on its operations specifications and whether the crew can legally fly the trip. The carrier’s corporate name is disclosed to you before you contract for a specific flight, as 14 CFR 295.24 requires.

What a positioning leg costs

Part of the price of any charter is the flying the aircraft does before and after your trip. If the aircraft is based 250 nautical miles from you, it has to fly there empty, and it has to get home afterwards unless it has another trip waiting.

The table shows an indicative flight time and base cost for a positioning leg one way. Time is the distance plus about 5 percent for routing, at typical jet cruise speeds, plus about 25 minutes for taxi, climb and descent. Cost is that time at this office’s hourly range for each category, before the 7.5 percent federal excise tax, fees and handling. The ranges are editorial estimates for October 2026: the floor is anchored to Paramount Business Jets’ published base rates, and the ceiling is kept below the all-in jet card averages that Private Jet Card Comparisons reported for the third quarter (see what a charter costs).

Distance to the aircraft	Flight time	Light jet, per leg	Midsize jet, per leg
100 nautical miles	about 40 minutes	$2,300 to $3,900	$2,800 to $4,800
250 nautical miles	about 1 hour	$3,500 to $6,100	$4,400 to $7,400
500 nautical miles	about 1 hour 35 minutes	$5,700 to $9,700	$7,100 to $11,800
1,000 nautical miles	about 2 hours 50 minutes	$9,900 to $17,100	$12,300 to $20,500

These are this office’s estimates, not a published index. A particular operator may price a positioning leg lower, or fold it into a round-trip price.

The table shows why distance matters more than it looks. An aircraft 500 miles away adds roughly $5,700 to $9,700 to the trip in the best case, and it often adds the same again on the way home. An aircraft 100 miles away adds a fraction of that.

Why “nearest available” beats “nearest to you”

Two things sound the same and are not: the airport closest to your house, and the aircraft closest to your trip.

More aircraft on the ground means more choices. A major private aviation airport, with several FBOs and many based charter aircraft, will usually have an aircraft within an hour. A small field near you may have none. A 40-minute drive to the bigger airport can cost less than the positioning flight to the smaller one. Choosing a New York airport works through this for Teterboro, Westchester and Farmingdale.

Crew limits make distance matter more than it seems. A Part 135 crew has legal limits on flight time and duty. Under 14 CFR 135.267, a two-pilot crew’s flight time in 24 hours is limited to 10 hours, and rest requirements follow. An aircraft that has to fly two hours to reach you, then fly your five-hour trip, can run out of legal day, which is why the nearest aircraft is sometimes the only one that works.

The destination has an aircraft position too. A one-way trip ends with the aircraft somewhere. If that place has plenty of charter demand, the aircraft can pick up another trip and your price falls. If it does not, you are paying for the flight home. This is the same mechanism that makes a one-way to the Caribbean in winter cost about three-quarters of a round trip.

How to choose between airports

When you live between two or three airports, give the broker all of them and let the aircraft decide:

• List every airport you would use, and the longest drive you would accept. The broker can price each.
• Say what you cannot do. A 6,000-foot runway, a curfew or a customs requirement can rule an airport out for your aircraft size.
• Compare the quote with the drive, not just the airport name. Saving $4,000 by driving 40 minutes is usually worth it. Saving $400 usually is not.
• Allow for the arrival end. Some destinations restrict aircraft, such as Aspen’s 95-foot wingspan limit, and the aircraft has to suit both ends.

Examples from outside New York

The route guides now include origins beyond New York. Each shows the same logic with different airports:

• Van Nuys to Aspen: a short, high-altitude trip where the aircraft’s payload at Aspen matters more than the distance.
• Palm Beach to Nantucket: a 1,000-nautical-mile trip where aircraft are scarce in summer because many have moved north.
• Teterboro to Palm Beach and Westchester to Palm Beach: the same destination priced from two New York airports.

What helps a broker find you the right aircraft

• Dates and a window. “Friday, but Thursday evening works” opens more aircraft than “Friday at 4 pm”.
• Passengers, bags and any pets or ski gear. Each changes which aircraft fit, and some airports limit payload.
• The airport options at both ends.
• Whether you need a return. A round trip often lets the aircraft stay with you and costs less than two one-ways.
• Whether you can use an empty leg. If the dates are loose, say so.

What Jake does

Jake asks for the passenger count, the airports at both ends and the flexibility on date, then asks carriers where their aircraft are, not only whether they are free. He prices the positioning legs separately so you can see them, tells you which carrier will fly you before you commit, and tells you when a different airport would save more than it costs in time.

If you would like a trip priced from your own airport, call +1 (862) 485-3510 or request a quote with the airports you could use and the dates that might work.

Sources

• 14 CFR Part 295, Air charter brokers, including 295.5 (definitions) and 295.24 (pre-contract disclosures) (eCFR, Title 14)
• 14 CFR 135.267, Flight time limitations and rest requirements: unscheduled one- and two-pilot crews (eCFR, Title 14)
• Paramount Business Jets: published hourly rates by aircraft category
• Private Jet Card Comparisons: Q3 2026 jet card prices
• Lombardi Jet Services route guides, which publish one-way and round-trip estimates by aircraft category