August wrap-up: five questions about buying an aircraft

The month is closing, and the correspondence shows which questions come up from different people almost word for word. I have collected five of them and answer each one briefly, with figures.

One. How long a purchase takes from the first enquiry to the first flight

Three to six months with the paperwork in order and no surprises at the inspection, as I have it.

Stage by stage:

▪️ Letter of intent and deposit — up to two weeks. ▪️ Pre-purchase inspection — from two weeks to a month and a half. ▪️ Closing with settlement and registration — from a week to a month.

Two things stretch the schedule: the service centre slot for the inspection and the window between deregistration from one registry and entry on the next. Dual registration is not permitted, and in that window the aircraft does not fly.

Two. Why the same model costs half as much from the seller next door

Because the price is set by the individual aircraft. On the Gulfstream G550, early 2004–2008 aircraft go for $12–17 million, later 2014–2021 ones for $25–35 million, with a median around $21 million. On the Falcon 7X the spread is wider still: $15–48 million, with an average around $27 million. Figures as I have them.

Four items make the difference within that spread: engine time remaining, the status of hourly-cost programmes, the avionics fit and the condition of the records.

Three. Is the engine hourly-cost programme really that important

The market prices its absence quite specifically. A Challenger 604 or a Global 6000 without an engine programme loses $1.5–2 million in value, a Phenom 300 loses $500,000–800,000, as I have it.

Active coverage passes to the new owner and counts as an asset in the transaction. Enrolling retroactively costs more than continuous participation, so on an aircraft outside a programme this is a separate line in the first-year budget.

Four. Which aircraft is better in the heavy class

The answer depends on the route network, and here there are three different answers.

▪️ Regular legs over ten thousand kilometres with a delegation on board — Gulfstream G550. Range 12,501 km, up to 19 seats, more than 600 aircraft built and a broad market on both sides of a deal. ▪️ Routes of up to nine hours with work done on board — Bombardier Global 6000. Cabin width 2.41 m against 2.24 m on the G550, and the baggage compartment is accessible in flight. ▪️ Short runways and city airports in the network — Dassault Falcon 7X. Three engines and London City certification open up airfields the other two cannot reach.

Five. Whether to consider charter instead of buying

Work it out from the hours per year. Below 100–150 hours, ad hoc charter wins on money. From 150 to 300 hours a jet card or fractional ownership pays off — there you pay for guaranteed availability. Above 300 hours an owned aircraft under an operator's management comes out cheaper.

A class benchmark for the comparison: the super-midsize Praetor 600 takes about $948,470 in fixed costs a year plus roughly $4,029 per flight hour, as I have it. At a hundred hours a year that works out at about $13,500 an hour, at three hundred at about $7,200.

Bombardier Global and Embraer Legacy have passed through my deals. When the planned hours do not add up, the aircraft still makes its own demands: upkeep runs to roughly 10–20% of its value a year, as I have it, and that line stays in place through the months when nobody flies anywhere.

What follows from this

Four questions out of five come down to one action: run the numbers on the specific aircraft and on how much you plan to fly in a year. The type sets the corridor, the individual aircraft sets the price of the deal, and an average figure from a market survey has nothing to do with your transaction.

The amounts are market benchmarks as of August 2026, as I have it.

Alexander Filimonov — business aviation: aircraft selection, purchase and entry into service.

Write in with how many hours a year you plan to fly and where: https://grok.flights/go/tc-itogi-avgusta