Fly
Charter, group charter, route economics, jet cards, memberships
Start here when you want lift without owning anything. We price the route, not the brochure, and show what each access model actually costs at your hours.
Get Live Charter Options
Find the Right Way to Fly Private.
Tell us how you travel. Wing & Vale helps you compare charter, jet cards, memberships, fractional ownership, aircraft ownership, management, and true route economics around your actual flight profile.
Compare Ways to Fly PrivateFlight Profile
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Pick a listed airport or type your own.
How many hours a year do you expect to fly?
Seats on a typical trip, not the largest group you have ever flown.
Build Your Flight ProfileDo Not Start With the Jet. Start With the Mission.
Your routes, passengers, schedule, annual hours, and service expectations determine which private aviation model makes sense. Everything else follows from that.
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Define the Mission
Home airport, recurring destinations, passengers, annual hours, baggage, seasonality, peak dates, notice period, and how far you fly.
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Choose the Access Model
Charter, membership, jet card, fractional share, lease, or whole ownership. The mission decides this, not the aircraft you like.
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Compare Providers and Economics
Real effective cost, availability, aircraft access, fees, policies, safety record, contract structure, and counterparty exposure.
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Take Action
Request charter quotes, compare jet cards, ask for a fractional or ownership analysis, or talk to a specialist.
Three ways in. One question each.
Pick the door that matches what you are actually deciding this quarter. Each one leads to a single action, not a menu.
Buy
Aircraft acquisition and sales, new against pre-owned, model comparison
Start here when a specific aircraft is the question. We compare mission fit, market position, inspection status, and what the aircraft costs to hold, not only to buy.
Request Aircraft Purchase OptionsOwn
Ownership economics, aircraft management, insurance, compliance
Start here when you already fly enough to run the numbers. We model the fixed and variable cost of ownership against charter and fractional at the same utilization.
Explore Aircraft Ownership
Compare the Entire Private Aviation Market
Six ways to get access to an aircraft, set against the hours that make each one work. Read left to right: the further right an option sits, the more you have to fly before it stops being expensive.
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On-Demand Charter
Occasional trips where flexibility matters more than commitment.
Typical fit Under 25 hours a year
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Memberships
Steady light use, with capped rates and guaranteed availability.
Typical fit Under 25 to 50 hours a year
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Jet Cards
Predictable access at fixed hourly rates, without owning anything.
Typical fit 25 to 100 hours a year
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Fractional Ownership
Frequent repeat use on similar missions, with a share you can sell back.
Typical fit 50 to 200 hours a year
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Aircraft Leasing
A defined aircraft for a fixed term, without buying the asset.
Typical fit 100 to 200 hours a year and above
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Whole Ownership
High, stable utilization that carries the fixed costs.
Typical fit 200 hours a year and above
Start From a Route You Actually Fly.
Pick one and it sets the home airport and a starting hours band in your Flight Profile. You can change both.
Estimated round-trip charter ranges, modelled September 2026. Real pricing moves with aircraft, date, and availability.
Know the Real Cost Before You Commit.
Headline hourly rates rarely tell the whole story. Wing & Vale models what you will actually pay across a year, on your routes, at your hours.
- Occupied hours against total hours
- Daily and hourly minimums
- Peak-day surcharges
- Repositioning and ferry legs
- Federal excise tax and segment fees
- Membership, initiation and management fees
- Annual commitment and unused hours
- Ownership overhead, crew and maintenance reserves
The Private Flight Cost Index
Sample: Atlanta to Miami, four passengers
Data as of September 2026
| Access model | Aircraft | Estimated effective cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-demand charter | Light jet | $14,000–$19,000 per round trip, estimate | Infrequent flexible travel |
| Jet card | Light jet | $16,000–$22,000 per round trip at 25 hours, estimate | Predictable access |
| Fractional | Light jet | $1.1M–$1.6M share plus monthly fees, estimate | Frequent repeat use |
| Whole ownership | Mission-fit aircraft | $3,500–$5,500 per occupied hour all-in, estimate | High stable utilization |
Illustrative model output as of September 2026. Assumptions and methodology are published with the index.
We publish how we decide.
Every figure on this site comes out of a model we describe, on a date we print. If you cannot check our work, it is not research.
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Scoring methodology
How we weight cost, availability, aircraft access, and service when we rank an option.
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Data update dates
Every table carries the date its inputs were last refreshed, on the table itself.
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Provider-source documentation
Where each rate, fee, and policy came from, named at the row that uses it.
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Affiliate and lead disclosures
Where we are paid, stated on the page where the link appears, not only in the footer.
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Correction policy
What we do when a number turns out to be wrong, and how quickly we do it.
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Independence policy
No provider pays for placement, for a ranking, or for a better result.
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Safety-source methodology
Which third-party safety audits we read, and what we refuse to infer from them.
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Expert review
Who reviews a model before it publishes, and what they are asked to check.
The Wing & Vale research desk
Independent of every provider we compare.
When you decide on someone else’s behalf.
We write the analysis you can put in front of a principal, a committee, or a board: the options, the assumptions, the cost of each over a realistic year, and what would have to change for the answer to change.
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Family offices
Aircraft as an asset: acquisition, holding structure, utilization, and exit.
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Wealth advisers
A defensible answer when a client asks whether to buy, share, or charter.
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Corporate travel teams
Programme design across routes, cost control, and traveller policy.
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Flight departments
Supplemental lift, fleet replacement cases, and management comparisons.
What is the smartest way for me to fly private?
Three answers is enough to start. Home airport, hours a year, passengers, and we can tell you which access models are worth your time and which are not.