Cessna Citation CJ1

Where it came from

Cessna launched the Model 525 CitationJet at the NBAA convention in October 1989 to replace the Citation I, which had been out of production since 1985 and had grown expensive to run. The 525 was largely a new aeroplane: a laminar-flow supercritical wing developed with NASA and Boeing, a T-tail, and two Williams FJ44 turbofans in place of the older, thirstier engines. It first flew on 29 April 1991, the FAA certified it on 16 October 1992, and the first aircraft was delivered on 30 March 1993.

The CJ1 is the second step in that line. Cessna raised the maximum take-off, ramp and landing weights to buy back range and payload, and fitted Collins Pro Line 21 in place of the original flight deck; the airframe and the FJ44-1A engines were otherwise carried over. The FAA certified the CJ1 on 16 February 2000 and the first aircraft went to a customer in New York on 31 March 2000. The 500th airframe of the whole 525 series, itself a CJ1, rolled out in June 2002, and 175 CJ1s had been delivered by the end of September 2003. Production ran to 2005.

The family kept going long after that: 2,000 deliveries across all 525 variants and five million flight hours by June 2017. For a charter client that volume is the practical point — CJ1s sit on ramps all over Europe, crews fly the type every week, and spares are not the constraint they are on a rarer aircraft.

Who charters a CJ1

Two to five people, one or two short European legs, and a schedule that an airline connection would break. A pair of directors to a site visit, a family to the Riviera, four colleagues to Milan and back the same evening. It is the smallest aircraft that still feels like the jet the client had in mind.

The decision is usually a three-way one. Against a King Air 200 or a Pilatus PC-12, the CJ1 is faster by about 165 km/h, flies at 41,000 ft rather than in the weather, and holds an 8,000 ft cabin where the turboprops sit nearer 10,000; it gives up their cabin volume, their cargo doors and their ability to use grass and gravel. Against a Citation Mustang it adds a seat, about 70 km/h and a useful slice of range. Against a CJ2 or a Phenom 300 above it, the CJ1 is simply the cheaper hour — and on a 90-minute leg with four aboard, nothing the bigger aircraft offer comes into play.

What 2,000 km means with five aboard

The published 2,000 km is a four-passenger figure with NBAA reserves and a 200 nm alternate, which is a conservative basis; on the 100 nm alternate manufacturers normally quote, the same aircraft shows about 2,220 km. Either way the number moves once the fifth seat is sold. With five adults and their luggage the CJ1 runs out of payload before it runs out of fuel, and the honest planning range is 1,500–1,800 km. Some layouts fit a sixth seat; the constraint on those is payload with full fuel, not seat count, and for six on a real sector the answer is a CJ2.

Runways are the easy part. 1,000 m to take off at maximum weight at sea level and 841 m to land, which opens Cannes–Mandelieu, Lugano and most European regional fields. It is a paved-surface aircraft only — no grass, no gravel. For those the answer is a King Air or a PC-12.

The cabin, the hold and the lavatory

The cabin is 3.35 m long, 1.47 m wide and 1.45 m high: four seats in a club with a fifth opposite the door. You do not stand up in it. You come up the airstair, move to your seat bent at the waist, and stay there. On a 90-minute leg that is a non-issue; on a three-hour one it is the thing you notice. Pressurisation is the compensation — 8.5 psi holds an 8,000 ft cabin at 41,000 ft, which makes for a meaningfully easier three hours than a turboprop in the mid-twenties.

The lavatory is the question people are too polite to ask, so plainly: it is a belted seat at the aft left of the cabin with a self-contained chemical toilet under it and a roll-up privacy curtain. Not a compartment with a door, and not externally serviced as built. Baggage is about 1.55 m³ across a nose hold, a tailcone hold and a small in-cabin space, and only the in-cabin space can be reached in flight. Everything else is sealed the moment the doors close.

The corridors it actually flies

Realistic block times with the cabin full and no fuel stop: Geneva–Nice about 55 minutes, London–Paris 1 h 05, Paris–Nice 1 h 25, London–Geneva 1 h 30, London–Milan 1 h 45, London–Nice 1 h 50. The practical ceiling is around three hours, which is most of western Europe from a UK or Swiss base and the whole Mediterranean from a French or Italian one.

Past that the arithmetic starts to bite. London–Barcelona at 1,150 km still fits with five aboard. London–Ibiza at 1,450 km sits at the top of the five-passenger band and is worth checking against the day's winds and the actual bag weight rather than assuming. Cyprus, Morocco and the Gulf are a different aircraft, not a longer CJ1 day. Where the CJ1 earns its rate is the leg a turboprop would take 25 minutes longer to fly at a higher cabin altitude — and the leg where a light jet's extra seats would fly empty.

What moves the price

From about €2,600 per flight hour, and on an aircraft this size the hourly rate is a smaller share of the total than people expect. A CJ1 day is usually one or two short legs, so the positioning flight can easily be longer than the trip you booked. If the nearest available aircraft is in Munich and you are leaving from Farnborough, those empty legs are on the quote — which is why a same-day return often prices better than two one-ways, and why we ask where you are flying from before we ask where you are going.

Crew duty is the second lever. Two pilots, an early start and a late return can push a day past the legal limit and add a night stop or a second crew. Then the calendar: Nice and Geneva through the summer, the Alps at February half-term, Cannes in May. Landing, parking and handling at the airports these routes use vary more than the fuel does, and on a short sector they are a large share of the number. Every trip is quoted individually.