Private jet from Palm Beach to Nantucket: times, prices, TFRs and fog

What goes into the price

On a three-hour flight, the flying is the biggest line, and positioning is the second.

Positioning. An aircraft that takes you to Nantucket on a Friday usually has to fly home empty, or on to another trip, and it is a long way from Florida. The one-way price therefore tends to carry most of the cost of the round trip. Palm Beach has a deep supply of charter aircraft in winter and a thinner one in summer, because many have moved north for the season.

Range. About 1,000 nautical miles is inside the range of every jet category here, but a turboprop or very light jet carrying a full cabin and luggage may stop for fuel. A stop adds 30 to 45 minutes and some cost, and a good quote says in advance whether one is planned.

The rest is the usual:

• the 7.5% federal excise tax and a $5.30 per-passenger segment fee in 2026
• handling at Palm Beach and Nantucket’s published fees (below)
• catering

Nantucket’s published fees (2026). The airport charges transient aircraft a landing fee of $48 plus $3.93 per 1,000 pounds over 6,000. A 17,000-pound light jet works out at about $91. It also charges a ramp fee per trip, valid for up to 24 hours:

Aircraft weight	Ramp fee
15,001 to 25,000 lb	$200
25,001 to 50,000 lb	$396
50,001 to 100,000 lb	$676

What makes this route cheaper or more expensive

Day and time. The FAA names Nantucket’s peak windows: Thursdays 5 to 8 pm, Fridays 1 to 8 pm, Sundays 1 to 8 pm, Mondays 6 to 9 am, and the Friday before a holiday weekend and Monday after. Aircraft are scarcest and most expensive then. Moving a Friday afternoon arrival to the morning can make a difference, and so can a Saturday trip.

Season. Demand follows the calendar of the people who live in both places. Nantucket runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day and the Christmas Stroll in December; Palm Beach runs through the winter and spring.

Aircraft size. A larger jet pays more in fees and faces more parking risk on peak weekends, and on a three-hour flight the cabin is the only difference you will feel.

Empty legs on this route

Aircraft often fly to Nantucket full on a Friday and come back to Florida empty, or return south on a Sunday evening after a weekend trip. That pattern follows from how the airport manages parking and how seasonal travel works; it is broker experience, not a published statistic. Charter Jet One’s figure for the saving on an empty leg is up to 75%.

Two illustrative examples:

• Northbound Friday. A midsize jet is positioning empty from Florida to collect a group on Nantucket on Sunday. You could fly up with it.
• Southbound Sunday. A light jet has just dropped a family on Nantucket and is heading back to Palm Beach empty. You could fly down with it.

These show how empty legs arise. They aren’t flights for sale. They run on the operator’s timing and can change at short notice.

Flights actually on offer are posted on our empty legs page as operators release them, and one-way charters and empty legs explains where the discount comes from.

Departing from Palm Beach

The airport is now President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT, formerly PBI). The name changed in July 2026 and the identifier followed in August; the county still owns and operates it. Pilots, FBOs and many documents still say PBI.

• Runways. 10L/28R is 10,001 feet, 14/32 is 6,931 feet, and a short 3,214-foot runway serves small general aviation aircraft.
• FBOs. Atlantic Aviation, Jet Aviation and two Signature terminals, North and South.
• Noise. There is no mandatory curfew. The airport has noise-abatement procedures, and the county says it cannot set operating hours for aircraft.
• Customs. Not needed for this route.

When the President is at Mar-a-Lago. The FAA issues a temporary flight restriction, typically with a 10-nautical-mile inner ring and a 30-mile outer ring. For a charter this means:

• Inside the inner ring, general aviation flights are barred unless the passengers and crew have been screened by TSA at a gateway. The county says Palm Beach is a gateway for departures.
• In the outer ring, flights must be on a flight plan (the county’s briefing says instrument) and in constant contact with air traffic control.
• At the airport, short ramp freezes, temporary road closures and heavier use of runway 14/32. The county reported 338 operations on one TFR day in March 2025 against 630 on a comparable day without one.

These restrictions have been issued on several dates in 2026, in February and March among them, and they are published by notice. They are the one thing about a Palm Beach departure that can change the timing without warning, so Jake checks them before confirming the departure time and sends the passenger and crew details early. The county’s briefing also mentions a standing restriction over the President’s residence; its current terms are published in the FAA’s notices and should be checked on the day of travel.

Arriving on Nantucket

The airport. Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK) is 3 miles southeast of town. The airport runs its own full-service FBO, open 6 am to 10 pm from May 15 to September 30 and 6 am to 9 pm the rest of the year.

Runways. 6/24 is 6,303 feet with instrument landing systems at both ends, and 15/33 is 4,500 feet. A third runway, 12/30, was permanently closed in March 2022, and the FAA says busy-hour arrivals are now mostly sequenced to runway 24.

Noise. There is no curfew. The airport’s Fly Friendly program asks pilots to stay offshore when departing and keep auxiliary power use short.

For the full arrival guide, including events and the Hyannis ferry fallback, see Teterboro to Nantucket.

Peak weekends, parking and fuel

Nantucket doesn’t have a formal parking reservation system for jets. When the ramp is full it manages demand with notices:

• Drop-and-go. Over the July 4th weekend in 2023, the airport closed its transient ramp except to medical flights and scheduled quick turns. Aircraft had to drop passengers and leave.
• Size limits. For one July 2023 weekend, aircraft with wingspans over 79 feet were barred from the transient ramp, with 30-minute quick turns only.
• Fuel. Jet fuel reaches the island by truck on the ferry. In July 2023 the airport limited sales to 300 gallons a day per visiting operator.

Any of these can mean the aircraft leaves after dropping you and comes back to collect you, which affects the price. On a trip that starts a thousand miles away, an operator may arrive with its return fuel on board. Jake checks the notices for your dates and confirms parking with the airport’s FBO when he books.

Fog, and the plan if it comes in

Fog is the thing to plan around on Nantucket. We analysed ten years of hourly airport weather reports, from 2016 to 2025:

Month	Low cloud or poor visibility (IFR)	Near or below the lowest approach limits
May	26% of hours	3.5%
June	27%	6.1%
July	33%	7.4%
August	21%	3.4%
September	19%	2.9%

IFR means a ceiling below 1,000 feet or visibility under 3 miles. “Near or below the lowest approach limits” means a ceiling below about 200 feet or visibility under half a mile. This is a rough measure; actual limits depend on the aircraft and operator.

After a three-hour flight, a diversion matters more than it does on a short hop. Hyannis, New Bedford and Providence are clear far more often than Nantucket. Martha’s Vineyard often shares the same marine fog, so it is the weakest alternate. From Hyannis, the fast ferries take about an hour. The plan says which alternate has fuel and a car waiting before you leave Florida.

Which aircraft fits best

A light jet such as a Phenom 300E does the trip nonstop in about three hours and is the best value. A midsize jet such as a Citation Latitude suits seven or eight people or a lot of luggage and saves a few minutes. A super-midsize adds comfort on the return in strong wind. A turboprop or very light jet is cheaper, but the fuel stop makes the saving smaller than it looks. Heavy jets are rarely the right choice because of Nantucket’s parking risk on peak weekends.

How Jake handles this route

Jake plans summer Nantucket trips around the FAA’s peak windows where he can, checks the airport notices for ramp and fuel limits on your dates, and checks the Palm Beach restriction notices before confirming a departure time. He also plans the fog fallback in advance: which alternate, which ferry, and who meets you. He confirms the operator is ARGUS Gold or Platinum rated, arranges a car with a ramp permit on Nantucket, and sends the passenger and crew details the screening process needs.