Pilatus PC-24

Where it came from

Pilatus showed the PC-24 at EBACE in Geneva on 21 May 2013, and the pitch was deliberately awkward: a jet that would keep the PC-12 turboprop's unpaved-runway access and its cargo door, then add jet speed and a pressurised jet cabin. Nobody else was building that. When the order book opened at EBACE the following year, the first 84 delivery positions went in 36 hours and Pilatus closed it again to protect the schedule.

P01 first flew from Buochs on 11 May 2015. EASA and the FAA certified the aircraft on 7 December 2017, and the first customer machine went to the American fractional operator PlaneSense on 7 February 2018. Steep-approach certification, London City included, followed in 2019.

The rough-field work arrived in stages. Dry sand and gravel were approved first; then in February 2020, after a campaign that took the aircraft onto grass at Goodwood, Duxford, Kunovice and Poitiers, wet dirt at Woodbridge and snow-covered gravel at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec, Pilatus added grass, wet earth and snow-covered surfaces. The company's claim is access to roughly twice as many airports worldwide as a comparable business jet.

Maximum take-off weight has been raised since certification and now stands at 8,500 kg. Just over 200 aircraft had been delivered by 2024, and the line at Stans is still running.

Who charters a PC-24

Two groups book this aircraft. The first has a destination that other jets cannot reach: a strip in the Alps, an island field, a private grass runway, a mining or estate operation at the end of a gravel road. The second has cargo — ski and boot bags for eight, bikes, camera or medical equipment, a dog crate, a case that will not go through a normal baggage door.

If you are in neither group, the honest advice is to look at its neighbours. A Citation XLS+ gives you a 1.73 m cabin you can stand up in for less per hour. A Phenom 300 is quicker, loses less range with every seat sold, and costs less again. The PC-24's premium buys airport access and payload, not cabin size — and paying it for a Nice–London return with hand luggage is money spent on nothing.

Where it can land, and what that is worth

The numbers are 940 m to take off over a 50 ft obstacle at maximum weight and 734 m to land — the best field performance of anything in the light or super-light class. On paved runways that puts everything in Europe within reach: Cannes-Mandelieu and Sion are non-events, and Samedan at 1,800 m and 5,600 ft of elevation is close to a home airport for the type. It also holds steep-approach certification for London City, though the operator must hold the approval too, which we confirm on the specific aircraft before quoting.

The unpaved certification is the part no competitor has. Dry sand and gravel came first, then grass, wet earth and snow-covered surfaces in 2020, each with conditions on surface strength and contamination that the operator assesses for the actual strip. It is a real certification, not a marketing line — but it is not a blank cheque either. Send us the field and we will have it surveyed.

What 7.01 m of cabin actually measures

This is the number most often misread on the internet, so read it here first. The PC-24's published cabin length of 7.01 m runs from the cockpit divider to the aft bulkhead and includes the baggage zone at the back. Cessna and Embraer publish figures for the passenger section. So the PC-24 is not two metres more cabin than a Phenom 300 — the seating area is much closer than the table suggests, and comparing the two length figures directly compares different things.

What the flat floor genuinely gives you is width and usable shape: 1.70 m across, 1.55 m high, and no dropped aisle. Standing up is still out at 1.55 m, though it is the tallest cabin in the class after the XLS+. The lavatory is fully enclosed and externally serviced. Cabin altitude is 8,000 ft at 45,000 ft — comfortable, and behind the Phenom 300's 6,600 ft if long legs are your concern.

The hold, the payload and the range with a full cabin

The cargo door is the structural argument. It is roughly 1.25 m wide by 1.30 m high, opening into 2.50 m³ of heated, pressurised hold inside the cabin rather than an external locker. Skis, bikes and flight cases load flat and upright instead of being fed through a hatch. Commercial operators normally fit a net or curtain, so treat the hold as loaded before departure rather than accessible in flight.

Maximum payload is 1,406 kg, the highest in the class, but with full fuel about 600 kg is left — six adults with light bags. So a genuinely full eight-to-ten-seat cabin costs fuel, and the 3,700 km headline is a six-passenger figure that shortens from there. Realistic block times: London–Nice about 1h 45m, London–Geneva 1h 30m, Zurich–Nice about 1h 5m, Geneva–Ibiza 1h 35m, London–Barcelona 2h 10m, London–Ibiza 2h 35m. The practical ceiling is about 4.5 hours.

What moves the price

Charter starts from around €3,700 per flight hour, against roughly €3,600 for a Citation XLS+ and €3,500 for a Phenom 300 with the same seat count. The headline gap is small, and it is worth being clear about what it pays for: airports, payload and a door, not a bigger cabin.

The larger difference arrives through positioning. There are far fewer PC-24s on European charter fleets than Citations or Phenoms, so the nearest available tail may be a long way from your departure field, and that empty leg is on the quote. A same-day return often costs less than two one-ways for exactly this reason. Crew duty is the next lever — an early start with a late return can exceed one crew's legal day, and a second crew or a night stop changes the number. Then the calendar: Cannes in May, half-term in the Alps, August on the Riviera. Unpaved or short-strip destinations add a survey and sometimes a handling arrangement that a normal airport does not need. Every trip is quoted individually.