"Should I just buy one?" is the question we get most from lessees who fly enough to start feeling it. It's a fair question, and it deserves a fair answer — not a sales pitch against ownership, because ownership is genuinely the right call for plenty of people. It deserves a full cost stack, honest ranges, and the hour count where the answer flips. That's this post. No depreciation schedules, no tax promises — those numbers belong to your accountant, not a blog post — just the direct-cost math a CFO would want to see before signing anything.
The ownership cost stack, itemized
Buy a well-kept used light jet in the Citation CJ1 class and here's roughly what you're carrying, every year, whether you fly it or not. These are typical ranges — actual numbers vary widely by aircraft age, avionics, base, and how the aircraft is used — but they're the categories nobody puts on one page for you:
- Capital tied up: roughly $2,000,000 for a well-equipped used airframe in this class (typical range, varies widely). Financed or paid cash, that capital carries an annual cost — call it debt service or opportunity cost — typically ~$120,000–180,000/yr at reasonable cost-of-capital assumptions (typical range, varies widely with your financing and what else that capital could be doing).
- Hangar: roughly $30,000–40,000/yr, depending on market and whether it's shared or dedicated space (typical range, varies widely).
- Insurance: roughly $30,000–50,000/yr, driven mostly by hull value and your pilot's experience (typical range, varies widely).
- Crew: roughly $120,000+/yr if you carry a salaried pilot full-time (the CJ1 is single-pilot certified, insurance permitting), or roughly $1,000–1,500/day if you contract a pilot only for the days you fly (typical range, varies widely).
- Engine program: roughly $250–450 per flight hour, enrolled to cap your exposure to a surprise overhaul bill (typical range, varies by engine and program).
- Subscriptions and recurring costs: maintenance tracking, avionics database updates, weather and connectivity — roughly $8,000–15,000/yr (typical range, varies widely).
- Unscheduled maintenance: the line every first-time owner underbudgets. Even with a diligent program, plan a reserve of roughly $20,000–60,000/yr for the squawks that show up between scheduled events (typical range, varies widely).
None of that includes fuel, which both an owner and a lessee pay directly at roughly the same contract rate — call it ~$600/hr for a CJ1-class jet at typical fuel burn and pricing (illustrative, varies with route and market).
What a dry lease removes from that stack
A dry lease doesn't make most of that stack cheaper — it makes most of it someone else's problem. When you dry lease a specific aircraft instead of owning it, the hangar, hull insurance, engine program, subscriptions, and unscheduled-maintenance risk are the lessor's, bundled into an hourly rate. You pay for the airplane only when you're using it — no capital tied up, no fixed costs on the months it sits still. What doesn't change: you still hire and pay your own pilot directly, and you still pay fuel directly, because those are yours under Part 91 whether you own the tail or lease it.
| Cost category | Owning (typical annual range) | Dry leasing |
|---|---|---|
| Capital / airframe | ~$2M tied up; ~$120k–180k/yr carrying cost | $0 tied up — $1,750/hr block rate, indicative |
| Hangar | $30k–40k/yr | Bundled into the hourly rate |
| Hull & liability insurance | $30k–50k/yr | Bundled — confirm your own liability needs with a broker |
| Engine program | $250–450/flight hr | Bundled into the hourly rate |
| Unscheduled maintenance | $20k–60k/yr reserve | Bundled into the hourly rate |
| Subscriptions / recurring | $8k–15k/yr | Bundled into the hourly rate |
| Crew | $120k+/yr salaried, or $1,000–1,500/day contract | Same — you hire and pay your pilot directly, either way |
| Fuel | ~$600/hr, paid by you | Same — paid by you at contract pricing |
Figures above are illustrative typical ranges for a CJ1-class light jet, not quotes for any specific aircraft. Actual costs vary with airframe age, avionics, base, financing, and market conditions.
The annual math, isolated
Because crew and fuel cost roughly the same whether you own the airplane or lease it, the real comparison is the airframe itself — ownership's fixed costs plus its per-hour variable costs, against dry leasing's flat hourly rate. Using the midpoints above (about $150,000/yr in fixed ownership cost — hangar, insurance, subscriptions, maintenance reserve, and capital carrying cost combined — plus roughly $936/hr for fuel and engine program) against our indicative $1,750/hr block rate plus fuel, here's how the airframe-only cost moves as annual flying goes up. These are illustrative, rounded numbers, not a quote:
- 25 hrs/yr: owning ≈ $173,000 · dry leasing ≈ $58,000 — leasing wins by a wide margin
- 75 hrs/yr: owning ≈ $220,000 · dry leasing ≈ $175,000 — leasing still wins
- 150 hrs/yr: owning ≈ $290,000 · dry leasing ≈ $350,000 — the gap closes and starts to flip
- ~195 hrs/yr: roughly break-even — the crossover point
- 250 hrs/yr: owning ≈ $384,000 · dry leasing ≈ $584,000 — owning wins by a wide margin
Every figure above is an illustrative model, not a quote — swap in your own capital cost and hours and the crossover moves. But the shape of the math is the whole story. Ownership's costs are mostly fixed — the hangar bill doesn't care if you flew once or fifty times — so more hours flown spreads the fixed cost thinner per hour. Dry leasing's cost is almost entirely variable, which is exactly why it's cheap at low utilization and loses its advantage as utilization climbs.
The honest crossover
Here's the part most of this industry won't tell you, because most of this industry sells one structure and needs you to believe it's always right: if you're flying a light jet north of roughly 200 hours a year, you should probably own it. At that pace the fixed costs of ownership are spread across enough flying that per-hour cost drops below what any lessor can offer, and you gain the thing leasing can't give you — total control over a specific tail's schedule, configuration, and maintenance history, with no availability request to anyone. If that's your flight profile, talk to us about the aircraft you'd want to buy — sourcing well-kept aircraft is half of what we do.
The middle — roughly 25 to 150 hours a year — is where dry leasing wins clearly, and it's where most of our lessees live. You get the same jet class you'd charter, at direct cost, without $2M of capital sitting on your balance sheet earning nothing while you're not flying it. Below roughly 15–25 hours a year, even a dry lease's fixed effort may not be worth it, and honest charter or the occasional dry lease starts looking better — we'll tell you that too, if that's where your numbers land. Run your own hours through the cost estimator before you decide anything; every assumption in it is editable, including ours.
The bridge case
One scenario doesn't fit neatly on either side of that line: the owner who's between airplanes. Sold the last one, waiting on a new build or a deal to close, and suddenly staring at six or twelve months with no aircraft and a flight department that still needs to fly. Buying something short-term to fill the gap ties up capital you're about to spend again; chartering for that stretch gets expensive fast and puts a stranger in the left seat every trip. A month-to-month dry lease is built for exactly this — no long commitment, a known aircraft, and an exit whenever your own airplane shows up. If that's your situation, tell us your timeline and we'll work out whether the math and the calendar line up.
The tax question we won't answer here
Ownership has real tax dimensions — depreciation, entity structure, how you use the aircraft for business versus personal travel — that can meaningfully change the math above for your specific situation. We're not going to guess at your numbers or promise you a benefit in a blog post; ask your tax advisor before those dimensions factor into a buy-or-lease decision. The direct-cost comparison above holds regardless of what your advisor tells you — it's just not the whole picture for everyone.
The bottom line
Ownership isn't wrong, and dry leasing isn't universally right — the honest answer depends entirely on how many hours you actually fly, and most people overestimate that number until they add it up. If you fly enough to feel the crossover coming, we'd rather help you find the aircraft to buy than talk you into a lease that doesn't fit. If you're in the middle, a dry lease gets you the same jet you'd charter for a fraction of ownership's fixed cost, with none of the capital risk. Either way, do the math on your own hours before you commit to either structure — more resources are in our resources section, including the full dry-lease cost breakdown and dry lease vs. charter, side by side.
All figures above are illustrative typical ranges, not quotes — actual ownership and lease costs vary widely by aircraft, market, financing, and use. Palm Aero Group's rates are indicative until your lease term is finalized. This article is general information, not tax, financial, or legal advice; ownership's tax treatment and financing terms should be confirmed with your own advisors. Palm Aero Group is not a charter operator and holds no Part 135 certificate — here's exactly how a compliant dry lease works.