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Home / Aircraft Guides / Phenom 300 Charter
By Pat Sinnott, Founder of Peak Aviation Solutions. Commercial multi-engine rated pilot, 21 years in private aviation, helped grow Summit Aviation’s flight department from one airplane to 21 before starting Peak in Bozeman, Montana.
Last updated: September 9, 2026
In March a family of four flew Fort Worth Alliance to Telluride and back on a Phenom 300 charter. Two parents, two kids, four sets of skis, the boot bags and duffels that come with four sets of skis, and a dog. Three hours and 36 minutes of flying across both legs, $38,500 all in.
That trip is the whole case for this airplane and, tilted slightly, the case against it. Add two more adults to the same four sets of skis and I would have moved that family to a bigger cabin before they reached the airport.
Quick answer: A Phenom 300 charter runs about $4,300 to $4,800 per hour all-inclusive, per Peak Aviation Solutions quoting records (2026). Across Peak’s Phenom 300 bookings since March 2024, finished totals ran $14,900 to $88,600, and short round trips divide out nearer $10,000 to $14,000 per flight hour once repositioning and daily minimums are counted. The cabin seats six passengers and works best with four.
The Embraer Phenom 300 and its successor the Phenom 300E are light jets whose common cabin seats six passengers, carry about 84 to 85 cubic feet of baggage, and fly roughly 2,077 to 2,267 nautical miles depending on variant, source and configuration. Every seat count on this page is cabin seats for passengers and excludes the two pilots. Published cruise is around 453 knots true airspeed (Paramount Business Jets; evoJets, 2026). It has been the most delivered light jet for more than a decade.
How much does a Phenom 300 charter cost per hour?
Range first, then the drivers, the same way I answer on a call.
From our quoting records, a Phenom 300 charter runs about $4,300 to $4,800 per hour, all in. That carries crew, landing fees and the operator’s standard costs.
You will see other numbers on page one of Google, and they do not agree with each other. Paramount Business Jets lists a single rate of $4,600 per hour. evoJets publishes $2,150 to $2,650 (2026).
When two brokers quoting the same airplane sit a factor of two apart, the number is not the useful part. What is inside it is.
What does a real booked Phenom 300 trip cost end to end?
Here is what finished trips look like, from our booking records with client details removed.
| Route | Legs | Flight time | Finished price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bozeman to Santa Barbara (KBZN to KSBA) | 1 | 2h 27m | $19,800 |
| Bozeman to Phoenix (KBZN to KPHX) | 1 | 2h 09m | $23,500 |
| Scottsdale to Burbank and back (KSDL to KBUR) | 2 | 2h 18m | $32,000 |
| Fort Worth Alliance to Telluride and back (KAFW to KTEX) | 2 | 3h 36m | $38,500 |
| Louisville to Richmond and back (KSDF to KRIC) | 2 | 4h 36m | $56,450 |
| Bozeman to Ketchikan, Alaska (KBZN to PAKT) | 4 | 9h 46m | $88,600 |
Source: Peak Aviation Solutions booking records, 2026 departures except Ketchikan (July 2025). Examples from our book, not a price list.
What a Phenom 300 charter rate does not include
This catches first-time charter clients, and it is arithmetic, not anything sinister.
An hourly rate buys the airplane’s time in the air. A trip total buys the whole job: flying the aircraft to you before your day starts, the operator’s daily minimum, and federal excise tax on top. A daily minimum is the number of billable hours an operator charges for a day it holds the airplane for you, whether you fly them all or not. Multiply an hourly rate by your flight time and you will land under the real invoice, every time.
The shorter the trip, the wider that gap gets, because repositioning and the minimum spread across fewer airborne hours. Our own Phenom 300 bookings show it cleanly.
| Trip shape | Effective cost per flight hour |
|---|---|
| Legs under 3 flight hours | about $10,551 |
| Itineraries of 4 or more flight hours | about $9,282 |
| Blended across the whole Phenom 300 book | about $9,335 |
Source: Peak Aviation Solutions booking records, March 2024 to August 2026, covering 48.32 flight hours and $451,050 in confirmed Phenom 300 bookings. Effective cost per flight hour is the finished trip price divided by airborne time only, so repositioning, daily minimums and federal excise tax all land inside the number.
The extremes make the point better than averages. Scottsdale to Burbank, 2 hours 18 minutes at $32,000, works out to about $13,900 per flight hour. The Ketchikan itinerary comes to about $9,100. Same airplane, same book, effective rate a third lower on the longer trip.
The cheapest hour in our records was a Bozeman to Teterboro leg at $14,900 for 3 hours 33 minutes, about $4,197 per flight hour. That happens when a routing lines up with where the aircraft was already going, and it is why I tell flexible clients to look at what is already moving first, the idea behind empty leg flights.
So read a Phenom 300 quote as a trip total, and ask where the airplane is coming from. If it is already near you, that quote is better than it looks.
How much luggage fits in a Phenom 300?
The interior runs about 17.2 feet long, 5.1 wide and 4.9 tall, with roughly 84 to 85 cubic feet of baggage (Paramount Business Jets; evoJets, 2026). Phenom 300 seating runs six passengers in the common layout, seven with a belted lavatory seat, and eight where a divan is fitted. Eight is not the number that matters.
Four is the number that matters. This airplane is close to perfect for four passengers with standard luggage, and five is fine on most trips. Above that you are asking a light jet cabin to do a midsize job.
Is a Phenom 300 the right aircraft for a ski trip?
Back to Telluride. That family carried four sets of skis plus boot bags, the duffels ski equipment drags along, and a dog, in a cabin sized for exactly that party. It worked because it was four people.
The same four sets of skis with six adults is a different quote and a different airplane. I would rather say so in the first phone call than at the door.
When is a Phenom 300 the wrong aircraft?
Two triggers, either one enough. More than four hours of flight time, or a party above five.
That is not a payload deficiency, it is a cabin that rewards right-sizing. The what size private jet guide walks the ladder, and the light jet charter category page covers this class.
What is the range of a Phenom 300, and can it fly coast to coast nonstop?
Published Phenom 300 range runs about 2,077 nautical miles IFR (Paramount Business Jets) to 2,267 (evoJets). The spread is normal, because range figures move with load, reserves and each source’s assumptions.
Here is the rule I actually use. The Phenom 300 is right for four passengers going up to about four hours, and the sweet spot is a two and a half to three and a half hour leg with four or five people. Past four hours, or above five passengers, I start recommending a larger cabin, even when the client came to me asking for this airplane by name.
Coast to coast is where that rule bites. A Phenom 300 will not reliably fly New York to Los Angeles nonstop with a full cabin against a winter headwind.
Can a Phenom 300 fly to Hawaii?
Not as a practical charter. Published range runs about 2,010 to 2,313 nautical miles depending on source and reserves, and California to Honolulu is roughly 2,100 to 2,400 nautical miles of open ocean with no alternate for most of it. Overwater legs that long also carry their own equipment and crew requirements. When a client asks about Hawaii, the answer is a heavy jet, not a light jet with the numbers shaved thin.
A fuel stop is not just the fuel. It is another descent and climb, another landing fee, and time on the ground. Once a stop is in play, a midsize or super-midsize that goes nonstop is often more economical despite the higher hourly rate. That comparison is worked through on the Challenger 350 charter guide, and the Hawker 800XP guide covers the midsize option with the longest legs.
The Density Altitude Check
Mountain West clients need this more than the range section, and almost no aircraft page covers it.
The Density Altitude Check is the pre-quote question of whether a specific airplane can take your full party and their luggage out of a specific airport at the temperature you are actually departing in, since high elevation and heat both reduce engine performance and cut allowable payload.
On the Phenom 300 that shows up as a real limit. At a high elevation field on a warm day, carrying six or seven passengers with standard luggage, you can meet restrictions at specific airports. This is not a safety question, since no operator or crew I work with will accept a trip the airplane cannot legally and safely fly. It is a planning question, because it decides whether everyone and everything leaves together.
How do hot days and high elevation airports affect a Phenom 300?
The part that surprises people: winter helps. Density altitude falls on a cold day at the same field elevation, so a January departure out of a mountain airport is often less restrictive than a July one. Out here, summer is the limiting season.
If your trip touches Telluride, Aspen, Jackson or Big Sky between June and September with a full party, ask your broker to run that check before you sign. If it comes back tight, the fix is one class up.
Phenom 300 vs Phenom 300E: what actually changed
Short version: book whichever your date puts near you.
Ask the model year before you accept the badge, because there are effectively two different 300Es. The E first appeared in 2017 on an interior update alone.
The substantive change came in 2020: the Garmin G3000 touchscreen flight deck and maximum speed raised from Mach 0.78 to Mach 0.80. A 2018 300E is a Phenom 300 with a nicer cabin. A 2021 300E is a different airplane to fly.
There is typically no price difference between the two in the charter market, and noticeably more 300E availability in the fleets we source from.
If a client wants the newest cabin in this class, the 300E is the one to ask for. On a two and a half hour leg with four people, it will not change your day.
How much does a Phenom 300 cost to buy?
More people ask me this than ask what it costs to charter, and the two get mixed up constantly.
Buying a Phenom 300 means an eight figure purchase. Pre-owned airframes were listed and trading between roughly $6 million and $14.7 million in the twelve months to January 2026, with the spread driven by model year, hours, avionics and whether the engines sit on a program (The Jet Agent market update, January 2026). A new equipped aircraft was around $11 million as of early 2023 (published Embraer pricing).
The purchase price is the smallest part of it. What follows is crew, hangar, insurance, maintenance and engine programs, flown or not.
Here is the arithmetic I run. At the totals earlier on this page, a family flying the Telluride trip four times a year spends near $154,000. Ownership starts well north of a million a year in fixed cost before a single hour is flown, and the crossover where owning beats chartering is measured in hundreds of hours a year, not dozens.
If your flying does not justify an airplane, the honest answer is to charter and keep your capital.
Is the Phenom 300 single pilot certified?
Yes, and Peak still will not let one pilot fly you.
The Phenom 300 is certified for single-pilot operation, and Embraer markets it as the fastest and longest-range single-pilot jet in production. Certification permits it. Peak does not authorize single-pilot operations on any aircraft we source, so every Phenom 300 we book flies with two qualified pilots.
That is a policy, not a regulation, and I will explain it rather than hide behind it. Single-pilot certification means the systems and workload are designed so one trained pilot can legally and safely fly the airplane. On a charter flight carrying someone else’s family into a mountain airport in weather, a second qualified pilot is the cheapest redundancy there is.
You will find good operators who crew light jets single pilot. We do not use them. When you see a Phenom 300 quote from us, two pilots are in it.
Phenom 300 quick answers
The questions that come up often enough to be worth answering directly.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who makes the Phenom 300? | Embraer, the Brazilian manufacturer. It has been the most delivered light jet for more than a decade (GAMA shipment reports). |
| Does the Phenom 300 have an APU? | No auxiliary power unit. Embraer’s Ground Power Mode runs one engine at idle to power cabin air, lighting and entertainment on the ground, which is how the airplane keeps the cabin comfortable without a ground power cart. |
| Does the Phenom 300 have thrust reversers? | No. Embraer chose brakes over reversers here, one reason short or contaminated runways deserve the density altitude question. |
| Does the Phenom 300E have autothrottles? | Autothrottle became an option on the 300E in 2023, so it depends on the airframe. Ask for the equipment list. |
| Does the Phenom 300 have a lavatory? | Yes, enclosed, at the aft end of the cabin. On longer legs clients notice it more than any other difference from a very light jet. |
Phenom 300 versus CJ3 versus Citation XLS
This three-way lands in front of my clients more than any other comparison in the light and midsize range. The Phenom 300 sits in the middle, which is exactly why it wins so often.
| Citation CJ3 | Phenom 300 | Citation XLS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cabin | Noticeably smaller than the Phenom | Middle of the three | Noticeably larger than the Phenom |
| Best mission | Short hops, around 2.5 hours, up to 4 passengers | 4 passengers, 2.5 to 4 hours | 4 to 5 passengers, over 4 hours, or when cabin space matters |
| Typical airframe age | Older than the Phenom | Usually the newest of the three | Older than the Phenom |
| Peak all-in hourly quote | about $4,200 to $4,500 | about $4,300 to $4,800 | see the XLS guide |
Source: Peak Aviation Solutions quoting records, 2026.
How I route the call. Four passengers going about two and a half hours, the CJ3 gets a hard look, because the economics are good and the cabin is enough. Between two and a half and four hours, the Phenom 300 is usually my recommendation. Four or five passengers going more than four hours, or anyone who tells me cabin space matters, the Citation XLS is the better answer.
One factor settles more of these than clients expect. The Phenom 300 and 300E generally carry a newer year of manufacture than the XLS fleet flying charter, so if a modern interior matters to you, that alone can decide it.
Below all three, the King Air and the turboprop class own everything under about two hours, worth knowing before you assume a jet is cheaper.
What I check before booking a Phenom 300
Same list every time, whatever the airplane.
Every operator clears an Operator Vetting File before we place a client on their aircraft: safety rating verified, an Additional Insured Certificate of Insurance on file, the D085 operations specification listing the tails authorized under their Part 135 certificate, and a W9. A company-level check, done once.
Then every flight gets a Total Flight Review inside 24 hours of departure. That is our own review, run in house, not a report we buy. A Wyvern PASS or ARGUS TripCHEQ on the crew flying your trip is one input to it.
The rest is weather at origin, destination and enroute, TFRs, NOTAMs, catering, ground transport and FBO call-outs. Green flies. Red never flies. Yellow is a judgment call, and I have swapped a crew on exactly that basis.
For this type I also ask year of manufacture and refurbishment, because a 2010 airframe and a 2022 one are different products.
Common questions about a Phenom 300 charter
How much does a Phenom 300 charter cost per hour?
About $4,300 to $4,800 per hour all-inclusive, per Peak Aviation Solutions quoting records (2026). Published broker rates elsewhere range from $2,150 to $4,600 per hour. Finished trip totals tell a more useful story: across 48 flight hours of Peak Phenom 300 bookings the effective cost has averaged about $9,335 per flight hour once repositioning, daily minimums and federal excise tax are counted.
How many passengers does a Phenom 300 seat?
Six passengers in the common cabin, seven with a belted lavatory seat, and eight where a divan is fitted. Those are cabin seats and exclude the two pilots. The practical number for a comfortable trip with standard luggage is four, and five works on most missions. Above five, or with skis or golf clubs aboard, a midsize cabin serves the party better.
What is the range of a Phenom 300?
Published range runs from about 2,077 nautical miles IFR (Paramount Business Jets) to about 2,267 nautical miles (evoJets), varying with passenger load, reserves and source assumptions. In practice that covers most domestic legs up to roughly four hours. Transcontinental flights with a full cabin generally require a fuel stop, which adds a landing fee, a second climb and descent, and ground time.
What is the difference between a Phenom 300 and a Phenom 300E?
The E stands for enhanced. It carries a more modern interior and roughly 200 nautical miles more range than the standard Phenom 300. In the charter market there is typically no price difference between the two, and 300E availability is noticeably better. For most trips the choice comes down to which airframe is positioned near your departure date.
How much does a Phenom 300 cost to buy?
Pre-owned Phenom 300 and 300E aircraft were listed and trading between roughly $6 million and $14.7 million in the year to January 2026, with model year, hours, avionics and engine program status driving the spread (The Jet Agent, January 2026). A new equipped aircraft was about $11 million as of early 2023. Fixed ownership costs run well over a million dollars a year before any flying.
Is the Phenom 300 single pilot certified?
Yes. The Phenom 300 is certified for single-pilot operation and Embraer markets it as the fastest and longest-range single-pilot jet in production. Certification permits one pilot, but Peak Aviation Solutions does not authorize single-pilot operations on any aircraft it sources, so every Phenom 300 booked through Peak flies with two qualified pilots. That is company policy rather than a regulatory requirement.
Where this airplane earns its place
The Phenom 300 wins the trip most people actually take: four passengers, two and a half to three and a half hours, a modern cabin, at a price below the midsize options without folding anyone into a smaller airplane. It loses the moment the party grows past five or the leg stretches past four hours, and the honest move then is one class up rather than a fuel stop.
Read a Phenom 300 charter quote as a trip total, ask where the airplane is coming from, and ask the density altitude question if a summer trip touches the mountains. Those three habits are worth more than any published hourly rate on the internet, including mine.
Get a Phenom 300 charter quote with the sourcing already done
Send me a routing and I will price a Phenom 300 against the real finished trips above, plus the CJ3 and XLS alternatives on your dates, so you see finished numbers side by side rather than three hourly rates that do not mean the same thing.
Every option arrives with the operator already through our vetting file, the Total Flight Review scheduled, and one thing most quotes leave out, which you will spot the first time you compare our number against another broker’s.
Pay per trip. No membership, no card, no deposit sitting with us.
Request a quote or call the charter desk at (406) 296-3256. For the live empty leg board and quotes on your phone, the Peak app carries both.
