How fast does a private jet fly?

The term "private jet" covers very different aircraft. At the light end, with room for four to six passengers and ranges of two or three hours, cruise speed is around 750 km/h. Midsize jets, the most common type in corporate flight departments, cruise around Mach 0.80. And at the top are intercontinental aircraft, capable of linking Europe and Asia nonstop.

Those high-end models are the only civil aircraft in service that routinely outpace commercial aviation: the Gulfstream G650ER and the Bombardier Global 7500 have a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.925, compared with the Mach 0.82-0.89 typical of airliners. On long-range cruise they slow to Mach 0.85 to stretch their range.

The difference isn't in the engines, but in the wing and in flight economics. A highly swept, thin-profile wing delays the onset of shock waves, and these aircraft fly at relatively low weights for their wing area. They also tend to operate between 13,000 and 15,500 m (43,000-51,000 ft), above airline traffic, where the thinner air reduces drag.

On short routes, the advantage of a private flight almost never comes from cruise speed: it comes from operating out of secondary airports, skipping boarding queues, and flying direct routes. On a 500 km trip, the difference between Mach 0.74 and Mach 0.85 amounts to just a few minutes; on a transoceanic flight, however, it can mean more than an hour.