Guide
Jet kerosene price: what jet fuel costs per gallon
Updated
One line in a jet's operating budget has a public, dated, checkable price attached to it. Everything else is a private commercial term.
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How this calculator works
- No official body publishes private jet operating costs, and this site does not invent them. There is no regulator, statistical agency or trade body figure to cite for crew pay, hangarage, insurance, management fees or maintenance reserves.
- Every money input above is a placeholder for a number you should get in writing from your own operator, insurer and maintenance programme. Treat the defaults as an illustration of the model's shape, not as typical 2026 market rates.
- The one figure that is sourced is fuel. The default of $3.43 a gallon is the US Energy Information Administration's US Gulf Coast kerosene-type jet fuel spot price FOB. It is for the week ending 7 August 2026, from the series released on 12 August 2026 (EIA).
- Spot is a wholesale benchmark. It is not the posted retail price an FBO charges into the wing, which carries into-plane, handling and margin on top, so enter what you actually pay.
- Costs are split the way an operator's ledger splits them. Fixed costs accrue with the calendar: crew, hangar, insurance, management fee, subscriptions. Variable costs accrue with the hour or the landing: fuel, maintenance and engine reserves, landing and handling. That split is why the cost per hour on this page falls steeply as annual hours rise.
- Trip fees are entered per trip and spread across the hours in an average trip. Two hours flown as one leg cost less on the ground than the same two hours as four short hops. That is why average trip length is an input rather than an afterthought.
- The model covers operating cost only. Acquisition price, finance interest, depreciation, refurbishment, aircraft registration and property taxes, and any revenue from placing the aircraft on a charter certificate are all excluded. A depreciation or tax figure would depend on jurisdiction and structure, and no single number would be honest.
- The regulatory basis of the flight changes the cost base and is not modelled. In the United States, owner flights not involving common carriage run under 14 CFR part 91. Carrying passengers for compensation or hire generally requires an air carrier or operating certificate under 14 CFR 119.1 and part 135.
- In the UK, non-commercial flights in a complex motor-powered aircraft require a Part-NCC declaration to the Civil Aviation Authority rather than an AOC (CAA).
The jet kerosene price that is actually published
The US Energy Information Administration publishes the US Gulf Coast kerosene-type jet fuel spot price FOB in dollars per gallon, daily, weekly, monthly and annually (EIA). In the series released on 12 August 2026, the weekly price for the week ending 7 August 2026 was $3.431 a gallon. The monthly average for July 2026 was $3.403.
The latest reading, in the series released on 28 October 2026: the weekly price for the week ending 23 October 2026 was $4.623 a gallon (EIA weekly series). The worked example below still uses the August figure of $3.43, and the table shows what a move of that size does to the bill.
That is a wholesale bulk benchmark at a refining hub, not a price you can buy at. An FBO's posted retail price adds into-plane fees, storage, handling and margin. It varies by airport and by whether you are on a contract or a fuel programme. Use the EIA series for direction and your uplift receipts for the model.
The arithmetic that matters more than the price
Fuel cost per hour is burn rate times price. In this site's worked example, 250 gallons an hour at $3.43 is $858 an hour, about $171,500 at 200 hours a year.
Move the price a dollar and the annual bill moves $50,000. Move the burn rate 50 gallons an hour and it moves about $34,000. Both matter, and only one of them is under your control when you choose the aircraft.
| Burn rate | At $3.00/gal | At $3.43/gal | At $4.50/gal | At $6.00/gal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 150 gal/hr | $450 | $515 | $675 | $900 |
| 250 gal/hr | $750 | $858 | $1,125 | $1,500 |
| 350 gal/hr | $1,050 | $1,201 | $1,575 | $2,100 |
| 450 gal/hr | $1,350 | $1,544 | $2,025 | $2,700 |
What the fuel line hides
- Mission profile. Published burn rates assume a cruise profile. Short legs spend a disproportionate share of the flight in climb, where burn is highest, so a jet flown on 45-minute hops burns more per hour than its book figure.
- Tankering. Carrying cheap fuel past an expensive airport saves money on the invoice and costs money in burn, because the extra weight burns fuel. Whether it pays is arithmetic, not habit.
- Contract and programme pricing. Volume commitments and fuel programmes change your effective price materially at the airports you use most, and change nothing at the ones you visit once.
- Sustainable aviation fuel. Where used or mandated, SAF has typically carried a premium over conventional jet fuel. We do not publish a premium figure here because we found no official source that publishes one.
The fuel figures on this page are dated because they go out of date. The EIA series is updated weekly, so check the live series rather than relying on a number printed on any page, including this one.