Australian pilot flies across Europe in private jet then reveals the true running costs

Having the money to buy a private jet is one thing, but what about the hidden costs?

Besides the millions needed to acquire your very own plane, owners will need more cash for everything from fuel to maintenance.

It’s hard to know what these extras will add up to.

To find out, one pilot took a private jet across Europe and then crunched the numbers.

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The hidden costs of owning a private jet

For the ultra-wealthy, you can’t put a price on the ease, luxury, and comfort that a private plane affords.

Drake didn’t bat an eyelid when splashing out on his $185 million airborne mansion.

And Mark Zuckerberg definitely didn’t think twice about his $80 million Gulfstream G700 purchase.

But while the initial payment is high it’s far from the last expense a jet owner will face.

Insurance, maintenance, fuel, staff, taxes, hangar rentals, and more start to add up.

Just ask the aviation enthusiast who took his Cessna in for a routine inspection and got a $27,080 bill.

One pilot set out to calculate how much he might pay if he bought a Cirrus Vision Jet, the world’s first single-engine private plane.

Exactly how much jet owners can expect to spend

Stefan Drury caught a lift with his pilot friend from London to Munich in a Cirrus Vision Jet, which costs about $3 million and has a range of 1,275 nautical miles.

Drury, who lives in Australia, wanted to know whether a plane like this would be worth it, considering how often he flies around the country.

This particular jet comes with a maintenance plan costing $120,000 per year.

While that sounds steep, Drury set out to find out whether paying for ad-hoc maintenance would be a better option.

He also accounted for insurance fees, which come to about $20,000 annually, and an average fuel cost of $6.20 per gallon.

The overall cost of owning and flying a jet depends on how often it’s used, so Drury crunched the numbers for 50, 100, and 200 flight hours per year.

For 50 hours of flying, the cost works out to $2,587 per hour.

At 100 hours, it drops to $1,467 per hour.

Someone who flies regularly will end up getting the most value for money, as flying 200 hours a year brings the cost down to just $907 per hour.

While that’s certainly not cheap, it’s pocket change to someone with the millions needed to buy a jet in the first place.

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