Embraer Phenom 100

Where it came from

Embraer had built regional airliners and military aircraft for forty years before it went after business aviation, and the Phenom 100 was the smaller half of that move. The company gave the aircraft its name at the NBAA convention on 9 November 2005, completed the digital definition phase of the design in March 2006, and had 50 orders on the books by EBACE that May. The target was stated openly: 30 per cent of the very light jet market, which the Eclipse 500 and the Citation Mustang were then fighting over.

The prototype made its first flight from São José dos Campos on 26 July 2007. Brazil's ANAC and the American FAA both issued type certificates during December 2008, the first aircraft was handed over on 24 December 2008, and EASA certified the type on 23 April 2009 — the first business jet of its size taken through certification end to end under the European agency's own responsibility.

The Eclipse programme collapsed; the Phenom did not. 439 had been delivered by the first half of 2026 and the line is still open. For a charter client that matters more than the history. A type with that many airframes has operators on most large European ramps, crews who fly it every week, and enough tails in the region to keep positioning legs short.

Who charters a Phenom 100

Two to four people, one or two short European legs, and a diary a scheduled connection would ruin: a pair of directors to a plant, a family to the Riviera for a long weekend, four colleagues to Zurich and back the same evening.

The comparison that comes up is with the Citation Mustang and the CJ1, and it is settled on the cabin rather than on performance. The Phenom is 1.55 m wide and 1.50 m high against the Mustang's 1.40 and 1.37, it carries the largest hold in the class, and the lavatory at the back is a serviced installation rather than a chemical toilet under a curtained seat. The CJ1 answers with a fifth seat and a lower hourly rate, and on four people over 90 minutes that is the whole argument. Where the Phenom earns its rate is the two- to three-hour leg, where the extra 8 cm of width and 5 cm of height stop being a specification and start being the flight.

What 2,180 km means once the cabin fills

The published 2,180 km is a genuine four-occupant figure with NBAA reserves, so for the seats we sell it is honest — which is not true of every headline in this class. The catch sits in the payload sheet. Maximum payload is 805 kg, but with full tanks the aircraft carries about 290 kg, which is three adults with bags. Some layouts fit a fifth and a sixth seat; put five or six people aboard and you are trading fuel for weight, and the planning range becomes 1,600–1,900 km.

Runways are the easy part: 972 m to take off at maximum weight at sea level and 741 m to land. Cannes–Mandelieu, Lugano and Sion sit inside that comfortably. It is a paved-surface aircraft only — no grass, no gravel; for those the answer is a King Air 200 or a Pilatus PC-12. London City needs a steep-approach approval held by the type and by the operator, so we confirm it against the specific aircraft rather than assume it.

The cabin, the hold and the lavatory

3.35 m long, 1.55 m wide and 1.50 m high, laid out as four club seats. Nobody stands up in it. The oval cross-section is why the height understates the aircraft: it puts the width at shoulder and head level rather than at the floor, and the windows are large for the class. Against a round-tube very light jet the difference is obvious the moment you sit down, and on a three-hour leg it is what makes the leg tolerable.

Baggage is about 1.80 m³, the largest in the very light jet class and roughly 15 per cent more than a CJ1 carries, but it is split across three places. The rear hold takes the bulk of it, is unpressurised and is sealed in flight; only the small forward space and the stowage by the lavatory can be reached aloft. The lavatory itself is at the rear, externally serviced, and can be specified with a belted seat certified for taxi, take-off and landing. Whether it is screened by a door or a curtain varies by aircraft, and we confirm that on the tail we quote.

The corridors it actually flies

Realistic block times with four aboard and no fuel stop: Geneva–Nice about 55 minutes, London–Paris 1 h 05, Paris–Nice 1 h 20, London–Geneva 1 h 25, London–Zurich 1 h 30, London–Nice 1 h 45. The practical ceiling is around three hours, which is most of western Europe from a London or Swiss base and the whole northern Mediterranean from a French or Italian one.

Past that the arithmetic turns conditional. Geneva–Ibiza and Munich–Barcelona fit with four aboard and ordinary luggage. London–Ibiza at 1,450 km is worth checking against the day's winds and the real bag weight rather than assuming. Athens, Cyprus, Morocco and the Gulf are a different aircraft rather than a longer Phenom day — for those, start with a Citation CJ2 for the shorter end and a Phenom 300 or a midsize cabin for the rest.

What moves the price

From about €2,700 per flight hour, and on an aircraft this size the hourly rate is the smaller half of the answer. A Phenom day is usually one or two short legs, so the positioning flight is often longer than the trip you booked. If the nearest available aircraft is in Vienna and you are leaving from Farnborough, those empty legs are in the quote — which is 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 departure and a late return can push a day past what one crew may legally fly, and a night stop or a second crew changes the number. Then the calendar: Nice and Geneva through the summer, the Alps at February half-term, Cannes in May. Landing, parking and handling at the fields these routes use vary more than the fuel does, and on a 90-minute sector they are a large share of the total. Every trip is quoted individually.