Jet cards: how prepaid hours actually price out
On 25 August 2026 the trade outlet Private Jet Card Comparisons reported another jet card launch: Sky Travel Solutions has brought out a programme focused on light jets. Launches like this arrive almost weekly, and each one shows a single number on the shop window — the contract hourly rate. What the effective hourly cost is actually built from does not appear in the announcement.
Here is the mechanics from the money side: what a cardholder pays for, how to price the prepayment, and at what annual hours the format stops paying off.
What is being bought
A jet card is prepaid flight hours at a fixed rate on a type or a class. It conveys no ownership: the holder gets priority on lead time and a known hourly price for the term of the programme. Entry and exit are simple, operation stays with the provider. The money leaves first, and that line is priced separately.
The cost of money
The deposit equals the class rate times the hours. Until the hours are drawn, the money works for the provider.
If the programme is drawn evenly across a year, the average balance on the card is half the deposit. At a 15 per cent opportunity rate that is 7.5 per cent of the deposit — exactly how much the effective hourly cost sits above the contract rate. Use your own rate; on a two-year drawdown the cost of money roughly doubles.
The rule: buy a card against a flight plan you will actually fly within the term. Hours bought ahead finance somebody else's working capital.
What the real hourly cost is made of
| Line | How it behaves | What to ask before paying |
|---|---|---|
| Contract rate | fixed for the term of the programme | on what grounds the provider may revise it |
| Peak-date surcharges | holidays and peak periods are listed separately | how many such days a year and what the surcharge is |
| Per-leg minimum | a short leg is billed at the minimum | what the minimum is and whether it applies per segment |
| How the hour is counted | block time, air time, rounding | which method the contract uses and how it rounds |
| Positioning legs | some programmes include them, some bill separately | whether positioning counts against paid hours |
| Fuel surcharge | tied to an index, moves during the year | whether the surcharge is capped |
| Cost of money | depends on your own rate of return | calculated by you; no contract shows it |
The weight of each line follows from the specific contract and your flight plan: two holders on the same contract rate arrive at different hourly costs if one flies holidays and short legs and the other weekdays and long ones. Programmes are compared once all seven lines are reduced to a single number.
The hours threshold
Up to 100–150 hours. Ad hoc charter on individual requests; nothing is cheaper here.
150–300 hours. A jet card or a fractional share: guaranteed availability starts to be worth more than the difference in rate.
Above 300 hours. An owned aircraft under management.
The boundaries are indicative: the crossover depends on routes, seasonality and lead-time requirements.
What to compare against: ownership arithmetic
Ownership is counted in two blocks: fixed costs run regardless of flying, variable costs are charged per hour in the air. For a Praetor 600 that is $948,470 a year plus $4,029 per flight hour, to my information.
| Hours a year | Total per year | All-in cost per hour |
|---|---|---|
| 100 h | $1.35M | $13,500 |
| 200 h | $1.75M | $8,800 |
| 300 h | $2.16M | $7,200 |
| 400 h | $2.56M | $6,400 |
At a hundred hours a year an owned aircraft costs about twice the charter equivalent of the same type. At 300–400 hours the ratio inverts. The jet card covers the middle of the range.
What to read before the deposit moves
Guaranteed lead time and the remedy when it is missed. What happens to unused hours: in some programmes they carry over, in others they expire. Exit terms and the refund of the balance. Terms for substituting an aircraft type when yours is in maintenance.
Provider risk is a line of its own. A card prepayment is by its nature an unsecured loan to the company: look at years in the market, fleet structure, and the wording on refunding the balance.
Conclusion
A jet card buys availability and a predictable price for the term of the programme. It is priced across the seven lines in the table above, the cost of money held by the provider included.
Between the 150 and 300 hour marks the card works, provided lead-time terms and the method of counting the hour have been checked before the deposit moves.
Figures are August 2026 benchmarks, to my information. The specifics follow from your own flight plan and the wording of the contract.
Alexander Filimonov, business aviation
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