Aircraft
Hawker 800XP: Specs, Range, Cabin, and Charter Cost
Full Hawker 800XP specs, range, cabin dimensions, charter rates, and
The Hawker 800XP is a midsize business jet built between 1995 and roughly 2006, and it is still one of the most commonly chartered midsize types in North America. It gives you a stand-up cabin, eight seats, and about 2,540 nautical miles of range for roughly what a light jet costs per hour. That trade — light-jet money, midsize cabin — is the whole reason the type refuses to leave charter fleets twenty years after the last one rolled out.
This page covers the published performance numbers, the cabin, what charter actually costs, and the one variable that decides whether a pre-owned example is a bargain or a money pit.
What the Hawker 800XP is
The Hawker 800XP is the mid-1990s update of the British-designed BAe 125 business jet line, later built in Wichita and sold under the Hawker name. The lineage runs de Havilland to Hawker Siddeley to British Aerospace to Raytheon to Hawker Beechcraft, and product support today sits with Textron Aviation, which acquired Beechcraft in 2014. The “XP” stands for “extra performance,” referring mainly to the uprated Honeywell TFE731-5BR engines that replaced the earlier -5R.
Three variants matter when you are shopping or chartering:
- 800XP — the volume model, built roughly 1995 to 2006.
- 850XP — adds winglets and more range, from 2006.
- 900XP — winglets plus TFE731-50R engines, built until Beechcraft exited jet production.
Charter brokers and operators frequently list all three as “Hawker 800,” so confirm the exact model and year before you accept a quote. The 850XP and 900XP fly farther on the same fuel.
Range and speed: what the numbers mean in practice
The Hawker 800XP is published at 2,540 nautical miles of range and a maximum cruise speed near 447 knots true airspeed, which is about Mach 0.78 to 0.80 at altitude. Range figures for any business jet assume a specific load, so treat 2,540 nm as the paper ceiling rather than the number you will fly.
In real charter use, a full cabin of eight plus bags plus reserve fuel typically pulls the practical stage length down toward 2,000 to 2,200 nm. That still covers:
- New York to Los Angeles in one hop in good conditions, but not reliably westbound against winter jetstream winds.
- Any transcontinental pairing with a lighter load, such as four passengers.
- Florida to most of the Caribbean, Texas to either coast, and Chicago to anywhere in the lower 48.
What it does not do is cross the Atlantic. Even the 850XP’s added range leaves the North Atlantic a multi-stop routing through Canada, Greenland, or Iceland.
The airplane also carries a real short-field limitation compared with its cabin peers. Balanced field length runs near 5,000 feet at maximum takeoff weight, so hot-and-high fields and short mountain strips can force a payload or fuel penalty. If your typical trip ends at a 4,000-foot runway in summer, ask the operator to run the numbers before you book.
Cabin: the reason the type survives
The Hawker 800XP has a stand-up cabin roughly 5 feet 9 inches tall, about 6 feet wide, and about 21 feet long. Published cabin height varies by an inch or two across sources depending on how the floor and interior are measured, so treat 5’8“–5’9“ as the real spread rather than a single exact figure.
The standard charter layout seats eight in a double-club arrangement, sometimes nine with a belted lavatory seat. It has a flat floor, an enclosed aft lavatory, and roughly 50 cubic feet of baggage volume, which is generous for the class but is not accessible in flight.
Here is the arithmetic that explains the type’s stubborn popularity. Compare it against the light jet most people cross-shop, the Embraer Phenom 300:
| Hawker 800XP | Phenom 300E | |
|---|---|---|
| Cabin height | ~5 ft 9 in (stand-up) | 4 ft 11 in |
| Typical charter seats | 8 | 6–7 |
| Published range | 2,540 nm | 2,010 nm |
| Max cruise | ~447 ktas | 464 ktas |
| Typical charter rate | ~$3,300–3,900/hr | ~$3,400–4,000/hr |
| Verdict | More cabin, more range, same money | Newer, faster, cheaper to operate |
Divide rate by seats and the Hawker costs roughly $440 per seat-hour against roughly $560 for the Phenom, and you get a cabin you can stand up in. That is the case for the airplane in one line. The case against it is everything under the floor, which the next section covers.
What a Hawker 800XP costs
There is no new price, because the type has been out of production for two decades. Beechcraft exited jet manufacturing during its 2012 Chapter 11 restructuring, and Textron Aviation bought the remaining company in 2014 for parts, service, and the turboprop lines.
Charter. Typical market rates run about $3,300 to $3,900 per flight hour in the United States. These are market estimates from broker quoting, not a manufacturer number, and they move with fuel and region. Read our private jet cost per hour breakdown for how those hourly figures translate into a final invoice, because taxes, repositioning legs, overnight fees, and daily minimums routinely add 20 to 40 percent.
Purchase. Pre-owned 800XPs trade broadly, and the spread is enormous for a single type. That spread is not mostly about airframe hours or paint. It is about engine and airframe maintenance program status.
The pre-owned trap: buy the maintenance status, not the airplane
The single largest variable in a Hawker 800XP’s true cost is whether its TFE731-5BR engines are enrolled on a manufacturer-backed maintenance service plan and how many hours remain before overhaul. An engine overhaul on this class of powerplant is a major capital event, and two otherwise identical aircraft — same year, same hours, same paint — can differ by a seven-figure lifetime cost purely on program status.
The practical consequence is that the cheapest listing on the market is frequently the most expensive airplane. An off-program example with engines near their overhaul interval carries a liability that the discount does not come close to covering. A buyer comparing asking prices without comparing hours-to-overhaul and program enrollment is not comparing anything useful.
Two more line items catch first-time buyers of older midsize jets:
- Avionics mandates. The FAA ADS-B Out rule took effect on January 1, 2020, and aircraft that were never upgraded lost access to most controlled airspace. Any 800XP still flying has been through this, but the same logic applies to future navigation and datalink mandates on a 30-year-old airframe.
- Inspection cycles. The airframe runs on a calendar-and-hours inspection schedule with periodic heavy checks. Ask when the next major check falls, not just when the last one happened.
How the Hawker 800XP compares to its class rivals
Against the two other aircraft charter clients cross-shop most, the Hawker trades speed and modernity for cabin and price:
| Criterion | Hawker 800XP | Citation X | Challenger 350 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class | Midsize | Super-midsize | Super-midsize |
| Range | 2,540 nm | 3,408 nm | 3,200 nm |
| Max speed | ~447 ktas | Mach 0.935 (536 ktas) | Mach 0.83 |
| Cabin height | ~5 ft 9 in | 5 ft 8 in | 6 ft 0 in |
| Typical rate | ~$3,300–3,900/hr | ~$4,200–5,000/hr | ~$5,000–6,500/hr |
| Verdict | Best cabin per dollar | Fastest, best on long legs | Most comfortable, priciest |
Choose the Hawker when the trip is under about 1,500 nm, the group is six to eight people, and cabin comfort matters more than arrival time. Choose the Citation X when the leg is long and the clock is the constraint. Choose the Challenger 350 when you want a six-foot cabin and in-flight baggage access and the budget supports it.
Who should fly the 800XP, and who should not
Book a Hawker 800XP if you are moving a group of six to eight on regional or transcontinental domestic routes and want stand-up cabin space at close to light-jet pricing. It is the value pick of the midsize class and the reason the type still fills charter certificates.
Skip it if your trip regularly ends at a short or high-elevation runway, if you need in-flight baggage access, if you need to cross an ocean, or if cabin age matters to you. A 2003 airframe with a refurbished interior is still a 2003 airframe, and cabin connectivity on many examples is dated.
If the per-hour economics are what drew you here, compare that math against a jet card or a fractional share before you commit to charter-by-the-trip. Cards lock a rate for a class of aircraft rather than a specific tail, which matters when the Hawker 800XP fleet you are quoting against is this varied in age and condition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Hawker 800XP still being manufactured?
No. Hawker 800XP production ran from about 1995 to 2006, and the successor 850XP and 900XP ended when Hawker Beechcraft exited jet manufacturing during its 2012 bankruptcy restructuring. Textron Aviation acquired Beechcraft in 2014 and continues to provide parts and service support for the fleet.
What is the range of a Hawker 800XP?
The published range is 2,540 nautical miles. With eight passengers, bags, and standard IFR fuel reserves, a realistic planning number is closer to 2,000 to 2,200 nm, which covers most US transcontinental routes but not an Atlantic crossing.
How much does it cost to charter a Hawker 800XP?
Typical US market charter rates run about $3,300 to $3,900 per flight hour. That is the base rate only; expect the final invoice to run 20 to 40 percent higher once repositioning legs, federal excise tax, landing fees, crew overnights, and daily minimums are added.
How does the Hawker 800XP compare to the Citation X?
The Hawker 800XP is a midsize jet built around cabin space and value, while the Citation X is a super-midsize jet built around speed. The Citation X cruises roughly 90 knots faster, flies about 870 nm farther, and costs roughly $1,000 more per hour to charter.
How many passengers does a Hawker 800XP seat?
Eight passengers in the standard double-club charter layout, occasionally nine when a belted lavatory seat is fitted and certified. Cabin space is comfortable for eight on legs up to about four hours.
The bottom line
The Hawker 800XP remains the best cabin-per-dollar option in charter, and that is a defensible position rather than a nostalgic one. Eight seats, a stand-up cabin, and 2,540 nm of range at roughly light-jet hourly rates is a combination nothing newer matches at the same price.
The caveat sits entirely in maintenance status. On charter, that is the operator’s problem and you simply book. On purchase, engine program enrollment and hours-to-overhaul decide the real cost, and the sticker price tells you almost nothing on its own.
Compare the full aircraft guide to see where the 800XP sits against every other class, or run the numbers on what private jet charter actually costs before you request a quote.
We update this guide as aircraft, program, and route pricing changes. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it.