Aircraft
How Far Can a Private Jet Actually Fly?
Range is the spec everyone reads first and almost everyone reads wrong. The types we publish span roughly 1,550 nautical miles for a Citation M2 to 7,700 for a Global 7500 — but a brochure range is a best case measured under conditions your trip will not have.
Altessair · August 20, 2026 · 2 min read
The ladder, in real trips
Numbers mean more attached to routes. New York to Miami is about 950 nautical miles — comfortable for every jet we publish, light jets included. New York to Aspen is about 1,500, which is where light jets start needing honesty about winds and reserves. A transcontinental Teterboro to Los Angeles is about 2,130, super-midsize territory. Coast-to-coast nonstop with margin, or into strong winter headwinds, is where heavy jets earn their price.
Above 5,000 nautical miles you are in ultra-long-range territory — the Falcon 7X at about 5,950, the G650ER at 7,500, the Global 7500 at 7,700 — aircraft whose entire reason to exist is crossing oceans without stopping.
Why we knock 10% off every brochure
Published range assumes ideal cruise, favourable weight, and often fewer passengers than the cabin seats. Real trips carry real people, real bags, air traffic routing that is never a straight line, and legally required fuel reserves to reach an alternate airport if the destination closes.
Our search deliberately treats an aircraft as nonstop-capable only if its published range covers the leg with 10 percent to spare, and marks it 'fuel stop likely' otherwise. A broker who quotes an aircraft to the last mile of its brochure is not quoting your trip — they are quoting a diversion.
Range is also a runway question
Range and airports trade against each other in a way brochures never mention: the longest-legged aircraft are also the ones that need the most pavement. A Global 7500 can fly 7,700 nautical miles, but it needs about 5,800 feet of runway at sea level and meaningfully more at altitude — which is why it can reach Aspen and cannot use Jackson Hole at all. A light jet gives up range and gains access.
This is why 'which aircraft' is never answerable from range alone. Our search checks both ends of the trip — the leg against the aircraft's range with reserves, and each runway at its own elevation — before it puts a type forward.
A fuel stop is not a disaster
It adds 45 minutes to an hour and it often saves serious money: a super-midsize with one stop can cost dramatically less than a heavy jet nonstop on the same route. Whether that trade makes sense is about who is on board and why. Six colleagues on a Tuesday will take the stop; a client you are trying to impress will not notice what the nonstop cost you.
The wrong answer is only the unplanned stop — the one that appears mid-trip because the range maths was done on the brochure instead of the day.