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NetJets Cost in 2026: Share, Card, and the Real Math
NetJets publishes one price. Three numbers set the rest
NetJets publishes one price, a starting figure for its Card, and quotes everything else individually, so most NetJets numbers online are third-party estimates rather than official quotes. What the company does reveal is how the costs are structured: three charges for a Share, one prepaid amount for a Card, and federal taxes that vary depending on whether your trip crosses a border. This page breaks down each one using real numbers, not marketing claims.
Why NetJets Quotes Share Pricing Privately
NetJets prices every Share contract individually, by aircraft category, hours, and region, and routes those pricing questions to a phone consultation rather than a rate table. Its Card is the one exception, and it carries a published starting price. That is consistent with the rest of the fractional category. VistaJet and most large fractional operators do the same, because a five-year contract with a share purchase attached does not fit a single published number the way a one-off charter quote can.
NetJets is the largest private aviation operator in the world by fleet size, and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway since 1998, when Berkshire paid roughly $725 million for NetJets. That ownership matters for a cost decision: a fractional contract is a multi-year commitment with a large prepayment, so the counterparty’s balance sheet is part of what you are buying, not just the hourly rate.
NetJets Share and NetJets Card Are Billed Differently
NetJets sells two core products, and they are billed completely differently.
NetJets Share is real, titled fractional ownership, commonly starting at 1/16th of a specific aircraft. A 1/16 share is normally sold as 50 occupied hours a year over a five-year term. At the end of the term, NetJets remarkets the share and you take the resale proceeds. Fractional programs operate under 14 CFR Part 91 Subpart K, a rule the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wrote specifically for shared-ownership flying, distinct from the Part 135 charter rules.
NetJets Card is a prepaid block of hours on one cabin category, with no equity purchase and no five-year term. You buy hours, fly them down, and the contract ends when they are used. Callout notice, how far ahead you must book to guarantee an aircraft, generally runs longer for cardholders than for share owners, since Share owners hold a contractual claim on a specific tail.
What a NetJets Card Costs
The NetJets Card starts at $215,000. Its jet card cost comparison page prices the Card at “$215,000 for 275 days of annual access” and states that one set price includes all standard fees. That is the one number NetJets puts in public, against a Share it quotes individually.
Three published terms come with it. The Card is bought by prepaying 25 hours at a time. Availability is guaranteed on as little as 48 hours’ notice. You have 24 months to fly the hours, and whatever is left terminates at the end of the contract rather than rolling into the next year.
What NetJets does not publish is the cabin category behind that starting price, or whether $215,000 buys the first 25-hour block outright. Treat it as a floor. It is not a quote for your own flying. Ask which aircraft class it buys, and whether the 7.5% federal excise tax sits inside or outside the set price, before you compare it to anything else.
For a rough read, Sentient Jet publishes $183,100 for 25 light-jet hours, with a fuel surcharge and excise tax charged on top. Grossed up for the 7.5% tax alone that is $196,832, which lands $18,168 below the NetJets starting price. That gap holds only if the NetJets set price is tax-inclusive, and a fuel surcharge near 10% on the Sentient side would erase it either way. Our jet card pricing guide carries the full published rate card across all four cabin sizes, and we run the two card programs against each other term by term in Sentient Jet vs NetJets.
What a NetJets Share Bill Actually Contains
Every fractional quote breaks into three lines, and only one of them moves when you fly more.
- Share price: a one-time purchase, partly recovered at remarketing when the term ends.
- Monthly management fee: fixed, billed whether you fly that month or not.
- Occupied hourly rate: the only line that scales with actual flying.
The arithmetic below uses an illustrative 1/16 midsize share, with round numbers rather than a real NetJets quote: a $1,000,000 share that resells for half its price at term end, a $20,000 monthly management fee, and a $6,000 occupied hourly rate.
| Hours flown per year | Fixed cost per year | Flight cost per year | Total | Effective cost per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | $340,000 | $150,000 | $490,000 | $19,600 |
| 50 | $340,000 | $300,000 | $640,000 | $12,800 |
| 75 | $340,000 | $450,000 | $790,000 | $10,533 |
| 100 | $340,000 | $600,000 | $940,000 | $9,400 |
Take your own quote’s three numbers and run them through the same table. Doubling flying from 25 to 50 hours a year cuts the effective hourly cost by a third, because the fixed lines get spread across more flying. That is why the identical contract looks expensive to a 25-hour flyer and cheap to a 100-hour one.
What Actually Pushes the NetJets Number Above a Card or Charter Rate
When we compare NetJets against a cheaper-looking card rate for readers, the premium is not pure markup. NetJets prices at or near the top of the market for a comparable cabin, and the premium buys something specific: peak-day availability from an owned fleet in the mid-800s of aircraft. On a holiday weekend, brokered programs frequently run out of their own aircraft and source a third-party tail, a different cabin, sometimes a different service standard. A large owned fleet under a guaranteed-availability contract absorbs those days internally far more often.
If you fly on flexible weekday dates, that premium buys coverage you rarely use. A card from a smaller operator, or straight charter, typically costs less for the same flying pattern.
Federal Excise Tax on a NetJets Bill
Domestic charter flying carries a 7.5% federal excise tax on the transportation charge, plus a per-segment domestic tax of $5.30 in 2026, under the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Form 720 instructions. International flights that begin or end in the United States switch to a different structure: a $23.40 per-person facilities tax in 2026, reduced to $11.70 on segments beginning or ending in Alaska or Hawaii. The National Business Aviation Association tracks the annual adjustment to both figures.
The practical effect on a NetJets bill is large. A $150,000 domestic flying year carries about $11,250 in percentage tax. The same spend flown internationally instead carries a per-passenger facilities fee measured in hundreds of dollars, not a percentage of the invoice. If your flying is mostly international, run this line separately rather than assuming the domestic percentage applies.
How NetJets Compares With the Fractional and Card Alternatives
| NetJets | Flexjet | VistaJet | Wheels Up | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core structure | Share (equity) or Card (prepaid) | Share, lease, or card | Prepaid hours, no equity | Membership plus on-demand charter |
| Fleet | Mid-800s aircraft (est.) | 340+ jets and helicopters | Owned, branded fleet, not publicly disclosed | Two jet types, tens of controlled aircraft |
| Positioning fees | Billed, except inside NetJets’ own interchange terms | Billed | Waived inside VistaJet’s global service area | Billed |
| Strongest fit | 75+ hours a year, peak dates, mixed cabin sizes | Buyers who want newer cabins and dedicated crews | International, one-way-heavy flying | Lower-commitment, flexible-hour buyers |
Who NetJets Cost Structure Does Not Fit
Skip a NetJets Share if you fly under about 50 hours a year on flexible dates. The $20,000-scale monthly management fee in the table above runs whether you fly or not, and at low hours it dominates the total more than the hourly rate does. A jet card or on-demand charter, priced by the trip instead of by the year, is normally cheaper at that flying pattern. A NetJets Card removes the equity purchase but keeps the same fixed-versus-variable tradeoff at a smaller scale, so it still favors a buyer who flies consistently rather than occasionally.
What Would Change This Math
The comparison shifts if NetJets’ own interchange rates, the published exchange terms for trading a smaller-share aircraft up to a larger cabin, come in below what a one-off large-cabin charter would cost for the same trip. It also shifts if your flying is heavily one-way or international, where NetJets’ positioning-fee treatment and the lower per-passenger international tax change the total differently than the domestic percentage tax does. Ask for both figures broken out on your specific quote before comparing it to a card rate sheet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does NetJets cost per hour?
NetJets does not publish an hourly rate, so any specific per-hour figure online is a third-party estimate rather than a quote. It does publish one price: the NetJets Card starts at $215,000 for 275 days of annual access, with all standard fees included. Your real cost per hour depends on three numbers on your contract: the share price net of resale value, the fixed monthly management fee, and the occupied hourly rate, divided by the hours you actually fly in a year.
Is a NetJets Card cheaper than a NetJets Share?
A Card removes the share purchase and the five-year term, so it fits a lower-commitment buyer better, but it does not remove the fixed-versus-variable tradeoff. Both products bill a fixed component and a flying component, and the effective cost per hour still falls as annual hours rise on either one.
What taxes are added to a NetJets bill?
Domestic flying carries a 7.5% federal excise tax plus a $5.30 per-segment domestic tax in 2026. Flights that begin or end in the United States but travel internationally instead pay a $23.40 per-person facilities tax, or $11.70 on segments touching Alaska or Hawaii. Ask your NetJets representative to show these as separate line items rather than one bundled total.
Is NetJets more expensive than Flexjet or VistaJet?
A direct rate comparison is not possible, because none of the three publishes fractional rates and each structures its bill differently. NetJets generally prices at the top of the market for its cabin categories, reflecting its larger owned fleet and peak-day guarantees. Compare delivered totals on your own real itineraries rather than headline hourly figures from any of the three.
Do NetJets shares lose value?
Yes, typically. A share is remarketed at the end of its term, and the resale proceeds are usually well below the original purchase price, which is why the illustrative table above treats resale as recovering roughly half the original share cost. Ask NetJets for its current published depreciation guidance on the specific aircraft type you are considering before treating any resale figure as guaranteed.
Ask for the three-line breakdown before comparing any NetJets quote to a card program’s advertised rate, then run your real annual hours through the table above. For the largest US fractional alternative on cabin quality, see our NetJets vs. Flexjet comparison, and for the no-equity, no-positioning-fee model, see our VistaJet cost breakdown.
We update this guide as aircraft, program, and route pricing changes. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it.