When can you afford to fly private?
As someone who publicly creates content about private aviation, I get a unique privilege to be a curator of stories and experiences of flying private. It is a huge honor.
A few months ago at an event, a post-exit founder was standing in a circle of people telling them how he spent his money. His exit was large, but you would never guess it. He's really humble. He isn't into fast cars or Rolex's, and he had just sold his beach condo.
The one thing that he "splurges" on? His share of a G650 with Flexjet.
He then went on to tell everyone about "this private jet guy on Twitter" who tweets about prices and its on his feed all the time. Was cool when I got to introduce myself (this is a humble brag, he was telling everyone about me without knowing I was standing there.)
But what if I told you you didn't have to have a huge exit to be able to fly private?
I've become slightly obsessed with this idea of bringing transparency on private aviation spend in an anonymous or semi-anonymous way. I think there are a lot more people that could fly private, but just aren't aware of how or how much it costs.
Big @$$ Disclaimer
A few things before we jump into this.
- All of these people will be 100% anonymous. No, I won't tell you who they are. No, I won't tell you how I know them. No, I won't tell you how they made all their money.
- This is not scientific. I sent out a tweet and a few texts with a very un-scientific poll to ask when they started flying private from a Net Worth and a Net Income level.
- Net Worth and Net Income are not the only drivers to flying private, but they're easy numbers to benchmark.
- This is not financial advice, everyone spends their money different.
Chartering: Net Worth and Net Income
I was really surprised when the charter numbers came in within such a tight range. When I say tight range, I mean I had 10 different people tell me they were within this exact range when they started chartering regularly. This isn't the one-off charters with a group of buddies taking a golf trip, this is "doesn't see the inside of a commercial terminal too often" level of flying.
Here's a visual representation of the bulk of responses that I got from my question. The typical answer was a $20m net worth before they started chartering on a regular basis. The range was $5m to $100m before they started chartering regularly.
Typically, the Net Income amount was between $1m and $2m with the most common answer being $2m. The key is to not have to sweat when the next $150,000 spend is coming up on a jet card or membership.
The most common combination of answers, and I think probably a good benchmark, is $20m net worth and $2m of net income.
How Much Are They Spending
There's a bit of nuance here, because if you own a business and can write it off the net amount will be different. But, here's two profiles of how much these people are spending on charter or fractional:
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50 hours/year on Phenom 300, $300,000/yr.
- $20m Net Worth and $2m Net Income
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Started at $50,000/year on PC12
- $10m Net Worth and $5m Net Income
When can you buy a jet?
This is way more subjective and has a lot more variety. In my day-to-day business of financing aircraft, I see personal financial statements and business income statements, and I take great precautions to protect the confidentiality of my clients and their financials.
Generally speaking what I see, when buying as a passenger in a professionally crewed Light or Midsize Jet, the number starts around $100m in Net Worth and $8-10m in Net Income. For Supermid, those numbers double and for a Heavy Jet, the number starts around $400m in Net Worth.
Now, there are many ways to skin the cat when purchasing an aircraft.
You can share a jet, which I'll revisit the concept of co-ownership in a future issue. When sharing a jet, typically the collective net worths and net incomes of the partners add up to the amounts listed above.
Or, you can fly it yourself. Most Vision Jet owner pilots have a net worth starting between $6m and $10m, and a Net Income of $1-2m. This looks a lot more like chartering numbers, which is what makes the Vision Jet so popular. It's a very approachable jet if you are the pilot.
Or, you can purchase a turboprop such as the PC12 or the TBM850. With lower operating costs, lower purchase price, and the ability to fly single pilot, there are many small business owners who own an aircraft that you wouldn't say "look at my private jet" on instagram.
Bottom Line
Look, the bottom line is spend only what you feel comfortable spending. I'm not going to pressure you in to something or out of something. My goal is to make you feel more confident and more comfortable with the providers you choose, the method of travel, and really to expand the addressable market of private aviation.
We're also not done with this topic. In 2025, this will become a recurring thing so be on the lookout for more content pieces and possibly some announcements around "when is it time to fly private." I think there needs to be much more transparency around this topic.
If you fly private and you think my numbers are totally crazy, reply to this email. Tell me where I've missed the mark! Or, if you think this is useful, forward this to that one friend and tell them to stop leeching off your private jet and start flying their own.
Until next week,
Preston Holland
P.s. forward this to someone you know who owns a plane, owns a jet card, a fractional, or even flies private with one of their friends. I bet they'll like it.
