What Is a Jet Card?

How it works

A jet card is a prepaid arrangement between a buyer and a card provider. The buyer pays a deposit upfront, and that deposit is drawn down as flight hours are used, at an hourly rate set at the time of purchase rather than at the time of each flight. The card specifies an aircraft category, such as a light jet, midsize jet or heavy jet, and the buyer flies on aircraft of that category rather than on one named tail number.

Card providers differ in how they source aircraft. Some operate their own fleet directly; others are reseller or broker programmes that draw on a network of third-party operators, sometimes called a floating fleet. Either way, the aircraft actually flying is operated by a certificated air carrier. In the United States, that means an operator holding certification under the FAA's 14 CFR Part 135. In the United Kingdom, it means an operator holding an Air Operator Certificate issued by the CAA under the Air Navigation Order 2016. In the European Union, it means an operator holding an AOC issued under EU Regulation 965/2012 (Air Operations). This describes the position as of 22 September 2026; the underlying rules are subject to change.

A jet card differs from three related products. Charter is booked and paid trip by trip, with no prepayment and no locked rate. Fractional ownership involves buying an equity share in a specific aircraft, with its own monthly management fee and occupied hourly rate. Membership programmes typically charge an annual or joining fee for access to preferential rates or availability, without prepaying a large block of flight hours. A jet card sits between charter and fractional ownership: it commits money in advance, like a fraction, but confers no ownership stake.

Most card contracts also set a callout window, the minimum notice the provider needs before a flight; a daily minimum flight time, a floor on how many hours are billed per day even for a short trip; and terms covering positioning flights, deadhead legs and peak day surcharges. All of these are contract-specific and are described in their own glossary entries.

Cost impact

The headline effect of a jet card is that it fixes the hourly rate at the point of purchase, shifting rate risk away from the buyer for the life of the card, in exchange for prepaying a lump sum with no guarantee it will earn interest or be refunded if unused. Whether that rate stays fixed, or whether the contract still permits a separate fuel surcharge on top, varies by provider and must be checked in the agreement.

Beyond the base rate, a card buyer can typically expect additional charges for a daily minimum flight time, a peak day surcharge on high-demand dates, positioning or repositioning costs when the aircraft is not already at the departure airport, and handling fees charged by the fixed base operator at each airport. None of these are standardised; the contract sets each one, and a reader should check the card's rate sheet for its specific figures rather than assume a published headline rate is the whole cost.

Taxes also apply. In the United States, the federal excise tax on air transportation, under 26 U.S.C. §4261, generally applies to charter flights including those flown against a jet card, and is usually itemised separately or built into the hourly rate. In the United Kingdom, Air Passenger Duty is charged per passenger per flight departing a UK airport; who bears it and how it is disclosed is set by the operator's own terms.

The single largest cost risk specific to jet cards is expiry. Because the buyer has prepaid, any hours not flown within the card's term, commonly one to two years but set by the individual contract, can be forfeited in whole or in part. That forfeiture raises the effective cost of the hours actually flown, sometimes substantially.

Example

Suppose, for illustration, a buyer purchases a light jet card with a deposit of $200,000 and a locked hourly rate of $8,000, giving approximately 25 flight hours for the term of the card. Suppose the card's term is two years, and the buyer flies eight trips averaging around 2.5 hours each, using approximately 20 hours in total.

At expiry, approximately 5 hours of prepaid value, or roughly $40,000, would be forfeited under a contract with no rollover or refund provision. The effective cost of the flying actually used rises from the nominal $8,000 an hour to closer to $10,000 an hour once the forfeited value is spread across the 20 hours flown. All figures here are illustrative and are not a quotation from any card programme.