The average entry-level jet card now costs $10,958 per flight hour, according to Private Jet Card Comparisons' third-quarter 2026 pricing analysis. That is down 3.1 percent on the second quarter and 2.7 percent on a year earlier, the second straight quarterly decline and the lowest average the publication has recorded since the fourth quarter of 2023.
For a buyer, the headline is only half of the print. The same data shows the rules around those hours moving the other way. Daily minimums are longer, and peak days, the dates on which a card holder pays more or loses guaranteed availability, are up by a quarter on a year ago. A cheaper hourly rate does not automatically mean a cheaper year of flying.
What the index measures
Private Jet Card Comparisons, edited by Doug Gollan, tracks more than 1,000 jet card options from over 80 providers. The quarterly average covers entry-level cards of fewer than 50 hours with guaranteed availability and fixed rates, and the quoted figure includes the base rate, fuel surcharges and the 7.5 percent US federal excise tax.
That last point sets the scope. These are US market prices, built for flying inside North America. They are a useful benchmark for anyone comparing programmes or planning American travel, but they are not Gulf rates and should not be read as one.
Where the rates fell
The decline was not even across cabin sizes, and the largest single move was driven by who left the market rather than by what anyone charged.
Cheaper Hours, Tighter Terms
Average entry-level jet card rates per flight hour in the third quarter of 2026, and the terms that moved the other way.
$10,958
Average hourly rate, down 3.1% on Q2
95 min
Average daily minimum, up from 85.1 a year ago
45.3
Peak days a year, up 24% on Q3 2025
Hourly rate by category, Q3 2026
Bar length is relative to ultra long range. Change shown against Q2 2026.
Source: Private Jet Card Comparisons, third-quarter 2026 jet card pricing analysis, 5 October 2026. Entry-level cards under 50 hours, US market, rates include fuel surcharge and the 7.5% US federal excise tax. The turboprop fall largely reflects OneFlight International leaving the market.
Turboprop cards averaged $5,022 an hour, down 19.9 percent on the quarter and 21.7 percent on the year. Private Jet Card Comparisons attributes most of that drop to the exit of OneFlight International, which had offered more than 100 aircraft-specific rates, over a dozen of them on turboprops. PlaneSense also halted sales of its Pilatus PC-12 card during the quarter. When a large block of options leaves the database, the average moves even if no remaining provider changes its price. AVNET covered the questions a card buyer should ask after OneFlight's difficulties in its guide to checking a jet card provider's financial stability.
Strip turboprops out and the average is $11,422 an hour, down 2.3 percent on the quarter and 1.6 percent on the year. That is the cleaner figure for jet buyers.
By category, the jet rates moved as follows:
| Category | Q3 2026 hourly rate | Change on Q2 | Change on Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very light jet | $7,341 | down 4.5% | down 0.2% |
| Light jet | $8,333 | down 1.5% | up 0.3% |
| Midsize jet | $9,607 | up 0.5% | down 0.7% |
| Super midsize jet | $12,485 | down 0.4% | up 0.4% |
| Large cabin jet | $14,791 | down 2.9% | down 3.9% |
| Ultra long range jet | $19,433 | up 1.2% | up 1.1% |
Large cabin is where a buyer sees real money. At $14,791 an hour, rates are $445 below the second quarter's $15,236, which on a 25-hour card is a saving of roughly $11,000 before any negotiated extras. Ultra long range moved the other way, and midsize edged up. The middle of the market, light jets through super midsize, was essentially flat on the year.
None of this takes prices back to where they were. Against the fourth quarter of 2019, the last quarter before the pandemic, the all-category average is still 23.7 percent higher, light jets are 38.4 percent higher and super midsize 24.3 percent higher.
The catch: minimums and peak days
The terms attached to each hour tightened in two places.
Daily minimums, the least flight time a provider bills for on any day the customer flies, averaged 95.0 minutes in the third quarter, up 2.2 percent from 92.9 minutes in the second and up from 85.1 minutes a year earlier. On light jets the minimum rose 8.4 percent in a single quarter to 78.9 minutes. For a short hop that matters more than the hourly rate. On the index averages, a 45-minute light jet sector billed at the 78.9-minute minimum costs about $10,960, against about $6,250 if only the flown time were charged. Anyone whose card will be spent on short legs should price it against their own flight profile rather than the rate card.
Peak days averaged 45.3 a year. That is flat on the second quarter but up 24.0 percent from 36.5 days in the third quarter of 2025, and almost double the 22.8 days of late 2019. Those are the dates when surcharges apply, call-out windows lengthen or guaranteed availability falls away, and they tend to coincide with the holidays and event weekends when card holders most want to fly.
There was some movement in the buyer's favour. The average non-peak call-out window, the notice a customer must give to secure an aircraft, shortened 1.7 percent on the quarter to 64.8 hours. It remains almost three times the 23.2 hours of 2019.
Supply is moving too
The quarter's provider changes matter as much as the averages. OneFlight is out, PlaneSense has stopped selling PC-12 cards, and NetJets is no longer selling jet cards to new clients, although Private Jet Card Comparisons keeps renewing customers in its analysis. At the other end of the market, JetSafe launched fixed-rate guaranteed availability on piston aircraft at $3,144 an hour across three programmes.
Promotions are a smaller lever than they look. Private Jet Card Comparisons notes that current deals are generally worth mid-single digits in added value, a useful sweetener but not enough to offset a poorly matched minimum or peak day calendar.
For readers still deciding between a card, a fractional share and charter, AVNET's comparison of fractional ownership, jet cards and charter sets out which model fits which flying pattern. The third-quarter print changes the arithmetic at the margin, chiefly for large cabin buyers. It does not change the main lesson of the comparison: read the contract terms as closely as the hourly rate.