Class overview
Very light jet
The easiest way into jet travel. Quick and efficient over short distances, with real jet comfort and access to thousands of smaller airports.
- Passengers
- 4–5
- Range
- 1,900–2,200 km
- Cruise speed
- ≈ 680 km/h
- Best for
- Quick city-to-city jet trips of 1–2 hours
The easiest entry into jet travel. A very light jet such as the Citation Mustang suits one to four passengers on quick city-to-city trips up to roughly two hours, with real jet speed and comfort at the lowest running cost.
We don’t own the jets — we source them. With access to 4,500+ aircraft, we pick the exact tail that fits your route, your group and your budget. These are estimated from-prices per flight hour, to give you a sense of cost. Your exact quote depends on the aircraft, route and dates — just ask.
The aircraft
Aircraft in this class
Pick a model to see its cabin, range and indicative hourly rate. We source the exact tail that fits your trip.
In detail
In practice
The very light jet is where jet charter starts. Four or five seats, 1,900 to 2,200 km, around 680 km/h, from about €2,800 per flight hour, in three types: the Citation Mustang, the Citation CJ1 and the Phenom 100. What you are buying is altitude — 41,000 ft, an 8,000 ft cabin at that height, and an aircraft that needs under 1,000 m of paved runway. What you are not buying is room. No very light jet has a stand-up cabin, and none has a lavatory you can count on finding behind a solid door. It is the most common surprise at this end of the market, better settled before the quote than at the airstair. Avily Lux owns no aircraft; we charter these from operators across Europe. The trade shortens this to VLJ and sells it as an entry-level or small private jet; all three name this class.
Who charters a very light jet
Two to five people, one or two short European legs, and a day that a scheduled connection would ruin. A pair of directors to a plant visit and home the same evening. A family of four to the Riviera for a long weekend. Four colleagues to Milan for a morning meeting, back before dinner.
The common thread is a small, fixed head count and value that sits in the diary rather than the cabin: ninety minutes in the air replaces a five-hour door-to-door day, from an airport twenty minutes from the house. It is also where most people fly privately for the first time, which is why the cabin is worth describing plainly rather than praising. Once the party reaches six, or the luggage becomes skis and golf bags rather than cases, the class has been outgrown.
Against the turboprop below and the light jet above
Downward, the turboprops start at about €2,200 an hour — €600 less. That €600 buys 90 to 180 km/h depending on the type, and flight above the weather rather than through it, with a cabin nearer 8,000 ft than 10,000. It costs seats and airfields: a King Air 200 or a PC-12 carries six to nine people, swallows luggage a jet will not and lands on grass. Under an hour, with a group, the turboprop usually wins.
Upward, the light jets start at about €3,300 — €500 more. That buys a sixth seat, a Citation CJ2's 2,990 km against a CJ1's 2,000, about 90 km/h and a much longer cabin: 4.14 m against 2.97 to 3.35 m here. What it does not buy is height — a light jet is still 1.45 m. The first cabin you can stand up in is the Citation XLS+'s, a class further up and a larger step in price.
What 1,900 to 2,200 km actually means
The band is a four-passenger figure with IFR reserves, and the binding constraint in this class is weight, not fuel. With full tanks a Phenom 100 lifts about 290 kg — three adults with bags. Sell the fifth seat and every aircraft here trades fuel for people.
In practice: the Citation Mustang publishes 1,900 km and plans at 1,300 to 1,650 with four adults and real suitcases, which makes it the type most likely to hand a client an unbudgeted fuel stop. A CJ1 shows 2,000 km and plans at 1,500 to 1,800 with five aboard. The Phenom 100's 2,180 km is a genuine four-occupant number, dropping to 1,600 to 1,900 with five or six. The practical sector is about three hours: London–Nice, Paris–Rome and Geneva–Ibiza fit; Athens, Morocco and the Canaries are a bigger aircraft, not a longer day.
What moves the price
From about €2,800 per flight hour, and on legs this short almost everything except the hour decides the total. The day is usually one or two sectors of an hour or two, so the positioning flight can easily be longer than the trip you booked. A same-day return often prices better than two one-ways.
Crew is the lever peculiar to this class. All three types are certified for single-pilot operation, part of why the hourly rate sits where it does, and the operators we work with roster two pilots regardless. If a competing quote is unusually cheap, crewing is the first thing to ask about. After that: crew duty on a long day with a late return, the calendar — Nice and Geneva in summer, the Alps at half-term — and landing, parking and handling fees, which on a 90-minute sector weigh more than the fuel.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I stand up in a very light jet?
- No, and no interior refit changes it. Cabin height runs from 1.37 m in a Citation Mustang to 1.50 m in a Phenom 100, so you come up the airstair, move to your seat bent at the waist and stay there. The smallest aircraft with a genuinely stand-up cabin is the Citation XLS+ at 1.73 m, two rungs up the ladder.
- Is there a lavatory, and does it have a door?
- All three types have one; none of them guarantees a door. On the Mustang and the CJ1 it is a belted seat with a self-contained chemical toilet under it and a privacy curtain. The Phenom 100's is a proper rear unit that is externally serviced, screened by a door or a curtain depending on the aircraft — we confirm that on the tail we quote.
- Very light jet or light jet?
- About €2,800 an hour against €3,300. Stay in the very light class when four or five people fly under two hours and the luggage is cases. Step up when the sixth passenger is real, when the leg passes two and a half hours, or when the cabin needs to hold its range with every seat sold — a CJ2 does 2,990 km against 2,000 for a CJ1.
- Will four of us with luggage need a fuel stop?
- Under about 1,500 km, no: London–Geneva, Paris–Nice, Milan–Nice and London–Nice all go nonstop on any of the three. London–Ibiza at 1,450 km sits at the honest limit for a Mustang and depends on the day's winds and the real weight of the bags. Send us the piece count and rough weights and we check them against the specific aircraft.