Services
VIP airliner charter
In short
What is a VIP airliner and when do you need one?
A VIP airliner is an airliner airframe — an Airbus A319 or a Boeing 737 — fitted with a private cabin instead of rows of seats. They carry eighteen to fifty passengers with bedrooms, a conference area and a galley a crew can properly work in. You need one when the group is too large for a business jet, or when the flight is long enough that a bed stops being a luxury.
01How it works
Arranging vip airliner charter
What they cost and why
Roughly $18,000 to $28,000 per flight hour, plus handling that is higher than for a business jet because the aircraft is larger and needs more ground support. The rate looks steep next to a heavy jet until you divide it by thirty passengers, at which point it is frequently the cheapest way to move a group privately.
Where they cannot go
A VIP airliner needs around 6,500 feet of runway and cannot use many of the small business-aviation fields that make private travel convenient. London City, Farnborough and Teterboro are all out. That often means a longer road transfer at one end, which is worth factoring in before choosing the aircraft rather than after.
Cabin configurations differ enormously
Two ACJ319s can be entirely different aircraft inside. One may be laid out for forty-eight passengers in a corporate shuttle configuration with rows of seats; another may carry eighteen with two bedrooms, a full galley and a conference room. The airframe tells you almost nothing about what you are chartering. This matters commercially as well as comfortably: the eighteen-seat aircraft costs roughly the same per hour as the forty-eight-seat one, so on passenger count alone the shuttle configuration is far better value, while on a twelve-hour sector the bedrooms may be the entire point. We send the actual cabin layout for the specific tail number rather than a manufacturer's brochure image, because on this class of aircraft the difference between the two is routinely the difference between the trip you expected and the one you got.
02Constraints
Worth knowing before you ask
Cabin layouts vary enormously between two aircraft of the same type; the tail number matters more than the model.
Repositioning an airliner is expensive, so a one-way trip is priced very differently from a return.
Runway and parking requirements exclude many convenient airports.
Fewer aircraft exist, so availability at short notice is genuinely limited.
Crew requirements are larger, which affects duty time on long days.
03The aircraft
Aircraft typically used
Drawn to one scale from real airframe dimensions. Which one suits your trip depends on the leg and the load rather than the passenger count alone.
VIP airliners
18–50 pax · 118 ft span
04Your part
What to send with the request
Every service has two or three details that change the answer entirely. Including them in the first message turns one exchange into a quote instead of four.
- Passenger count and cabin expectations
- Whether you need bedrooms, a conference area or simply seats changes which airframes work and how many are available on your dates.
- Both airports
- These aircraft need around 6,500 feet of runway and are excluded from London City, Farnborough and Teterboro. Naming the airports early avoids a quote you cannot use.
- How far ahead you are planning
- Far fewer VIP airliners exist than business jets, so availability at short notice is genuinely limited rather than merely expensive.
05Before you pay
What we commit to on every booking
We have no completed flights to point at yet, and we are not going to invent any. What we can do is put the terms in writing before you ask for them.
What we commit to
Nothing is charged before the aircraft is confirmed.
You receive the operating carrier’s legal name, its AOC number and the aircraft registration in writing before any invoice or wallet address is issued. If those three things are not in front of you, you have not been asked to pay yet.
One commission, inside the price you were quoted.
Our margin is already in the number you agreed to. There is no second invoice, no booking fee added at the end, and no separate charge for arranging the flight. If the total moves after you have accepted it, the reason is a change you asked for.
No surcharge on any payment method, including cryptocurrency.
Card, bank transfer, USDT, Bitcoin and cash settle at the same price. We do not price crypto as a premium service, and we do not discount it to move you onto a rail that is harder to reverse.
If the operator cancels, you choose the remedy — not us.
Aircraft go technical and operators occasionally fail. When that happens before departure you are offered a replacement aircraft on equivalent terms or a full refund, and the choice between them is yours. We do not get to decide that a substitute was good enough.
These form part of our terms of business. If any of them changes, the change is dated there rather than made quietly here.
06Get aircraft options
Tell us the trip
Route, date and how many people is enough to start. Anything specific to this service — an animal, an equipment list, a medical report — can follow in the same thread.
Questions
- Can you move a large group — a team, a crew, a wedding party?
- Yes. Above roughly 16 passengers the aircraft moves from a business jet to a VIP airliner such as an ACJ319 or a BBJ, which carry 18 to 50 people in a private configuration. For a sports team or a film crew the deciding factor is usually baggage and equipment volume rather than seat count, so send the equipment list with the request.
- How much does it cost to charter a private jet?
- There is no fixed price. As indicative starting points, light jets from about $3,200 per flight hour, super-midsize jets from about $6,000 per flight hour, heavy jets from about $8,000 per flight hour and ultra-long-range aircraft from about $11,500 per flight hour, plus positioning and ground handling at both ends. Each route page shows an indicative starting price for that trip. Those figures are starting prices, not quotes: the price of your flight is calculated individually and depends on aircraft availability, where the aircraft is positioned, the date, the operating company and airport charges.
- How much luggage can I take?
- Baggage is limited by volume, not by piece count — around 50 cubic feet on a light jet and 115 on a heavy jet. Skis, golf bags and oversized cases are fine but must be declared when you request the quote, because they can change which aircraft works. Weight matters on long legs: a full cabin plus heavy baggage can shorten range enough to add a fuel stop.
- How far in advance do I need to book?
- Four to six hours is usually enough for a domestic or intra-European leg if an aircraft is already positioned nearby. Intercontinental flights need longer for crew duty time, overflight and landing permits. The genuine constraints are seasonal: Nice and Ibiza in July, Geneva in ski season, and Riyadh at any time because of permit lead times.
- How do you check that an operator is safe?
- Every flight is operated by a company holding a valid air operator certificate in its own jurisdiction. We check that certificate and the operator’s insurance cover before offering the aircraft, and any third-party safety audit it holds — ARGUS, Wyvern or IS-BAO. Not every good operator holds one, so we never imply one that has not been verified for that operator. You receive the operator name, and any audit status, before you pay so you can verify it yourself.