In a London showroom, private jet consultant Steve Varsano once pointed at a screen showing a Gulfstream cabin and delivered the line every first-time buyer needs to hear: "If you want to replace this couch with two chairs, that's $400,000." You can buy a house for that.
The purchase price is the cover charge. The operating budget is the bar tab. And the bar tab is where brokers go quiet — because the number that closes the sale is never the number that shows up in year one. Here is the full accounting, built on 2026 cost models.
Fixed costs: the meter runs at zero hours
Fixed costs are the cruelest part of aircraft ownership. Crew salaries, hangar, insurance, management, training — you pay all of it whether you fly 400 hours or four. FlyCraft's 2026 cost model, built on a 200-hour year with fuel at $7.66 a gallon, puts the numbers in stark relief.
For a light jet: $487,262 a year before the wheels leave the ground. Crew pay including benefits is the largest line at $311,079 — two pilots are not optional, and experienced captains command $86,000 to well over $300,000 depending on the aircraft. Recurrent training adds $38,000. A hangar in a major metro runs $39,270. Insurance, $13,913. A management company, $45,000. Another $40,000 in miscellaneous fixed costs.
Step up and the numbers scale brutally. A midsize jet carries $618,231 in annual fixed costs — crew alone at $411,881. A large-cabin aircraft: $1,073,567 a year, with crew at $704,897 and training at $73,000. These figures do not include a dollar of fuel. They are the price of simply owning the asset.
Variable costs: what the hour actually burns
Every hour flown stacks variable costs on top of that fixed base. For a light jet, FlyCraft's model shows $3,373 per flight hour: fuel at $1,490, maintenance at $800, engine reserves at $600, and fees plus crew travel at $400. Midsize: $4,348 an hour. Large cabin: $6,637 an hour, with fuel alone at $2,696.
All-in at 200 hours a year, that means roughly $1.17 million for a light jet, $1.50 million for a midsize, and $2.40 million for a large cabin. Fly a large-cabin aircraft 400 hours and $4 million a year is realistic. Private Jet Nation's 2026 breakdown of a heavy jet at 400 hours puts the true per-hour cost at $7,300 to $10,250 — roughly double the $3,000-to-$5,000 "variable cost only" figures brokers quote.
Two line items deserve special warning. Engine programs — JSSI, Rolls-Royce CorporateCare, Pratt & Whitney ESP, Honeywell MSP — do not publish rates; they are quoted per tail, and anyone giving you a generic program rate is guessing. The only publicly posted rates in the market are Pilatus CrystalCare: $4,799 a month plus $380 an hour for a PC-12, and $17,226 a month plus $820 an hour for a PC-24. If you fly outside a guaranteed hourly program, budget $1 million or more per engine for overhaul on a large-cabin jet — and $1.2 to $2 million for paint and interior every seven to nine years.
The ambushes
Beyond the line items, experienced owners report the expenses that actually cause regret.
Depreciation. Plan on 5 to 8% a year for the first five years. On a $20 million aircraft, that is $1 to $2 million annually in real economic cost — non-cash, but it swamps most operating comparisons on its own. Buying used does not help: crew and hangar are unchanged, and maintenance gets worse.
The tax tail. Bonus depreciation sits at 60% for 2026 purchases under current law, then phases to 40% in 2027, 20% in 2028, and zero after. Section 179 allows up to $1,160,000 in immediate deduction subject to limits. For a qualifying business buyer, the tax treatment can wag the entire ownership decision — which is why the hours-based break-even test alone is never decisive.
Downtime means paying twice. During heavy maintenance you still pay every fixed cost — and you charter to cover your trips. Owners never get empty-leg discounts; charter customers do.
The offset illusion. Many owners place the aircraft on a Part 135 certificate to earn charter revenue. A Gulfstream G650 charters at $8,000 to $12,000 an hour, so 200 charter hours looks like $2 million gross. After the management company's 30-to-50% split, marketing fees, 15-to-25% higher maintenance wear, crew overtime, and increased insurance, most owners retain 40 to 55% — roughly $800,000 to $1.1 million. Real money, but not the number in the pitch.
Opportunity cost. Twenty million dollars parked in a depreciating asset is twenty million not invested. At a modest return, the foregone gains exceed the entire annual operating budget.
None of this means ownership is wrong. For the 300-hour-a-year principal, it is usually right. It means the decision should be made with the full ledger in view — the one the broker's spreadsheet leaves off the page.
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