A small white business jet with wingtip tanks in flight against a blue sky with light cloud

4 aircraft4 to 6 seatsup to 1,550 nm

Very LightJet Charter

The smallest jets. Two to five seats, regional legs.

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Aircraft in class

Seats

4 to 6

Typical charter configuration

Range

1,550nm

From 1,178 nm at the entry point of the class

Cabin height

4.9ft

Seated cabin

The class

What a very light jet is for

A very light jet is the cheapest way to put a small group on a jet. Cabins are seated rather than stand up, baggage volume is tight, and most of the class needs a fuel stop on anything approaching transcontinental.

Across the 4 aircraft we track in this class, published range runs from 1,178 to 1,550 nautical miles and typical seating from 4 to 6. That spread matters. Two aircraft sold as the same class can differ by a thousand miles of range, which is the difference between a nonstop and a fuel stop on a transcontinental leg.

The aircraft in this class are Cessna Citation M2 Gen2, Embraer Phenom 100EV, Honda Aircraft HondaJet Elite II and Cirrus Vision Jet SF50.

Charter pricing does not follow the class boundary cleanly either. An older airframe in a larger class sometimes prices below a new one in the class beneath it, and the only way to find out on your date is to make operators bid.

Very Light Jets compared
Aircraft	Seats	Range	Cruise	Cabin H	Runway
Cessna Citation M2 Gen2	6	1,550 nm	404 kt	4.75 ft	3,210 ft
Embraer Phenom 100EV	4	1,178 nm	405 kt	4.9 ft	3,190 ft
Honda Aircraft HondaJet Elite II	5	1,547 nm	422 kt	4.8 ft	3,699 ft
Cirrus Vision Jet SF50	5	1,275 nm	311 kt	4.1 ft	2,036 ft

Aircraft

Every very light jet we quote

A white and blue business jet in cruise flight above red desert terrain seen from above and ahead

1,550 nm / 6 seats

Cessna Citation M2 Gen2

Entry point to the Citation family. Short field performance is strong for a jet and operating costs sit near the bottom of the jet market.

A twin engine business jet parked nose out in a lit hangar at dusk with the air stair lowered and the taxiway beyond

1,178 nm / 4 seats

Embraer Phenom 100EV

Oval cabin cross section gives noticeably more shoulder room than the tube shaped competition in this class.

A business jet parked on an airport ramp at sunrise, backlit, with the nose gear and forward fuselage in the foreground

1,547 nm / 5 seats

Honda Aircraft HondaJet Elite II

Engines mounted above the wing rather than on the fuselage, which frees cabin volume and cuts interior noise.

1,275 nm / 5 seats

Cirrus Vision Jet SF50

Single engine jet with a whole airframe parachute system. Slower than the class but lands on runways most jets cannot use.

Questions

Very Light Jets explained

How many passengers fit in a very light jet?

Typical charter seating across the very light jet class runs from 4 to 6 passengers. Maximum certificated seating is often higher, but the practical number is lower once baggage and sector length are accounted for, because seats and fuel compete for the same weight allowance.

How far can a very light jet fly without stopping?

Manufacturer published range across this class runs from about 1,178 to 1,550 nautical miles. Treat those as the ceiling. Real range falls with a full cabin, hot conditions, high elevation departure fields and headwinds, so a book figure of 2,000 nm is a comfortable 1,600 nm mission.

Does a very light jet have a lavatory?

1 of the 4 aircraft we list in this class have a fully enclosed lavatory. The rest use a curtained arrangement. It is worth specifying on the brief, because it is one of the few cabin details that reliably surprises people on the day.

Photography on this site is representative. It does not depict a specific aircraft, operator or tail number offered for charter.