To price a charter trip, multiply the hours of every leg, including the positioning legs with nobody aboard, by the aircraft’s hourly rate; top up any day that falls short of your daily minimum; add the trip’s crew overnight, airport, de-ice and catering charges; then add federal excise tax. For a taxable domestic flight in 2026 that tax is 7.5% of the amount paid for the transportation plus $5.30 for each segment for each passenger (IRS, Instructions for Form 720). Your rate card sets the first four steps; the tax rules set the last.
All numbers in this post are illustrative. They are round on purpose so the arithmetic is easy to follow. They are not market rates for any aircraft type, and not current fee or fuel prices. Use your own rate card and invoices in their place.
Who can charge for a charter trip?
Selling a flight takes a certificate. Under 14 CFR 119.5(g), “No person may operate as a direct air carrier or as a commercial operator without, or in violation of, an appropriate certificate and appropriate operations specifications.” This post is written for Part 135 certificate holders building a quote for a customer. If you run a Part 91 flight department, what you may charge is much narrower; our comparison of Part 91, Part 135 and Part 91K covers where the lines fall.
What goes into a charter quote?
A quote has three layers: charges for the aircraft’s time, charges for this trip’s crew and airports, and tax.
| Layer | What it covers | How it’s usually charged |
|---|---|---|
| Flight time | Hours on passenger legs | Hours × hourly rate |
| Positioning and repositioning | Legs flown empty to reach the passengers or get home | Hours × the full rate, or a reduced positioning rate |
| Minimums | Short days and short trips | A daily minimum in hours, sometimes a trip minimum |
| Crew overnight and per diem | Hotels, meals and ground transport while the crew is away | A fee per night or per crew member per day |
| Airport charges | Landing, handling, ramp and parking, overnight fees | Passed through at cost, or as a set fee |
| De-ice | Fluid and service on a cold departure | Passed through at cost, usually estimated on the quote |
| Catering | Food and drinks the passengers ordered | Passed through at cost, sometimes with a markup |
| Federal excise tax | Tax on the amount paid for transportation | 7.5% plus a per-passenger, per-segment fee |
The hourly rate
The hourly rate is the core of the card. It has to cover the aircraft’s variable cost per hour, a share of the year’s fixed costs at the hours you expect to sell, and your margin. If you haven’t built that number from your own costs, start with our guide to what a trip really costs; a rate set from a competitor’s price, or from fuel and engine reserves alone, loses money on short and empty legs.
Decide what the rate is measured in and write it on the card. Block time runs from when the aircraft moves under its own power to when it comes to rest after landing. On a rate card, flight time can instead mean wheels up to wheels down, which bills a little less per leg than block. (The FAA uses the block meaning: 14 CFR 1.1 defines flight time as starting “when an aircraft moves under its own power for the purpose of flight.”) If you bill wheels-up time, set a taxi allowance per leg to subtract from block. Either works if the customer can see which one you used.
Decide too whether fuel is inside the hourly rate. If it isn’t, the quote needs a fuel line, and a fuel surcharge policy for when prices move between quote and trip.
Positioning and repositioning
Positioning is the empty leg that brings the aircraft to the passengers; repositioning takes it home or on to its next trip. Each one burns the same fuel and puts the same hours on the engines as a passenger leg, so leaving it off the quote means giving that leg away.
Operators handle it in one of three ways:
- Charge positioning at the full hourly rate.
- Charge it at a set share of the rate, for example 75%, so the customer pays something for the empty leg without paying full price for it.
- Waive it when the aircraft was going there anyway, for example when the return leg doubles as positioning for the next trip.
Decide which fees ride on positioning legs too. A per-leg fee for handling makes sense on a leg that lands somewhere with a handling charge; a catering fee on an empty leg doesn’t.
Minimum daily hours
A daily minimum protects the day you can’t sell to anyone else. If the card sets a daily minimum of 2.0 hours and the customer’s legs that day add up to 1.4, the quote charges 0.6 hours more at the hourly rate. Write down how the minimum counts days. The common choices are each calendar day with a departure, or each day the aircraft is away from base whether it flies or not, and the second costs the customer much more on a multi-day trip.
Some operators also set a trip minimum, a floor for the whole trip, so that a single 0.5-hour hop still covers the crew call-out and preparation.
Crew overnight and per diem
When the crew stays away, someone pays for the hotel, meals and ground transport. A simple way to charge for it is a set overnight fee per night, or per crew member per night, that covers the hotel and a per diem for meals. A set fee is easier to quote than passing receipts through, and the customer knows the number in advance.
Duty and rest limits decide whether a trip needs an overnight at all. A day that starts with positioning and ends with a long passenger leg can run past what the crew may fly, and then the quote needs a night away or a second crew. Check the plan against your duty rules before you send the price; our guide to Part 135 duty time limits covers those limits.
Landing, handling and ramp fees
Airport charges vary by airport and by FBO. Common lines:
- Landing fees. Charged per landing, often by the aircraft’s weight.
- Handling or facility fees. Charged by the FBO, sometimes reduced or waived with a fuel purchase.
- Ramp and parking. Charged per night, sometimes per day, while the aircraft sits.
- Overnight and after-hours fees. For staying open late, or a call-out outside the FBO’s hours.
Pass these through at cost or set them per airport. When you quote before you have the FBO’s numbers, mark them as estimates and say on the quote that they will be billed at actual.
De-ice
De-ice is the line most likely to differ from the quote, because nobody knows the weather at departure when the quote goes out. The bill depends on the aircraft’s size, the fluid used and how much it takes. Quote it as an estimate on any winter departure from a cold airport, billed at actual, and say so on the quote. A de-ice bill that appears on the invoice with no line on the quote is the hardest charge to explain.
Catering
Catering is ordered for the passengers, so it belongs on their trip. Pass it through at cost or with a stated markup, per leg. Confirm whether the customer’s own order or yours sets the amount, and record which legs it’s on.
How does federal excise tax apply to a charter?
Charter flights that are taxable transportation carry the federal tax on transportation of persons by air under 26 U.S.C. 4261. The IRS’s Instructions for Form 720 (revised June 2026) say the tax has two parts, and you add them together:
- Percentage tax. “The percentage tax is 7.5% of amounts paid for taxable transportation of persons by air.”
- Domestic segment tax. “For calendar year 2026, the tax on the amount paid for each domestic segment of taxable transportation is $5.30.” A segment is a single takeoff and a single landing.
The segment fee is indexed for inflation and changes each calendar year; the IRS publishes the new figure in the Form 720 instructions. The $5.30 here is the 2026 figure. Check it again before you quote a trip that flies in a later year.
For a charter, the segment tax is counted per passenger. The same instructions say “the domestic segment tax for each segment of taxable transportation is figured by multiplying the tax by the number of passengers transported on the aircraft.” Their own example: a $1,000 charter carrying seven employees over two segments carries $149.20 of tax, which is ($1,000 × 7.5%) + (2 × $5.30 × 7).
A few rules change the answer for particular trips. Each is in IRS Publication 510:
- Positioning counts. Publication 510 says amounts paid for transportation include charges for “layover or waiting time, and movement of aircraft in deadhead service.” The percentage tax applies to what the customer pays for an empty positioning leg as well.
- Rural airports. “The domestic-segment tax doesn’t apply to a segment to or from a rural airport.” The Bureau of Transportation Statistics keeps the list.
- Small aircraft. The taxes don’t apply to an aircraft with a maximum certificated takeoff weight of 6,000 pounds or less, unless it’s operated on an established line. The exemption never covers a jet, because the taxes “apply if the aircraft is jet-powered, regardless of its maximum certificated takeoff weight or whether or not it’s operated on an established line.”
- International trips. Flights that begin or end in the United States carry a separate per-person tax on the use of international air travel facilities instead, $23.40 for 2026 (Form 720 instructions), and the rules for what is taxable change with the route.
- Owner flights on a managed aircraft. Amounts an aircraft owner pays a management services provider for flights on the owner’s own aircraft are exempt, but tax may apply to flights on a substitute aircraft, and the exemption doesn’t cover an aircraft leased for less than 31 days, a fractionally owned aircraft, or one used for scheduled service sold seat by seat.
The person paying for the flight is liable for the tax, and “ordinarily, the person receiving the payment collects the tax, files the returns, and pays the tax over to the government” (Publication 510). For a charter, that is usually you.
Which of your separately listed charges count as amounts paid for transportation is a question to settle with your tax advisor before you build the quote template. The worked example below applies the percentage tax to the whole charter price, which keeps the arithmetic plain.
A worked charter quote
Every figure in this quote is illustrative.
The rate card
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Hourly rate (flight time, fuel included) | $4,500 per hour |
| Positioning | Full hourly rate |
| Daily minimum | 2.0 hours on each day with a departure |
| Crew overnight (hotel and per diem) | $300 per pilot per night |
| Landing, handling, ramp, de-ice, catering | Passed through at cost |
The aircraft is a jet, so the small aircraft exemption doesn’t apply.
The trip
The aircraft is based at its home airport. Four passengers are in a city 0.6 hours away. They fly to a destination 1.2 hours from there, stay two nights, and fly back on the third day. Two pilots stay with the aircraft. None of the airports is a rural airport.
| Leg | Day | Route | Passengers | Flight hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Home base to pickup city (positioning) | 0 | 0.6 |
| 2 | 1 | Pickup city to destination | 4 | 1.2 |
| 3 | 3 | Destination to pickup city | 4 | 1.2 |
| 4 | 3 | Pickup city to home base (repositioning) | 0 | 0.6 |
| Total | 3.6 |
Day 1 flies 1.8 hours and day 3 flies 1.8 hours. Both fall 0.2 hours short of the 2.0-hour daily minimum. Day 2 has no departure, so under this card it carries no minimum.
The quote, line by line
| Line | Arithmetic | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Passenger legs | 2.4 hr × $4,500 | $10,800.00 |
| Positioning and repositioning | 1.2 hr × $4,500 | $5,400.00 |
| Daily minimum, day 1 | (2.0 − 1.8) hr × $4,500 | $900.00 |
| Daily minimum, day 3 | (2.0 − 1.8) hr × $4,500 | $900.00 |
| Aircraft subtotal | $18,000.00 | |
| Crew overnight | 2 pilots × 2 nights × $300 | $1,200.00 |
| Landing fees, pickup city | 2 landings × $150 (estimate) | $300.00 |
| Landing fee, destination | 1 landing × $250 (estimate) | $250.00 |
| Handling, destination | one charge (estimate) | $500.00 |
| Ramp and parking, destination | 2 nights × $125 (estimate) | $250.00 |
| De-ice, destination departure | estimate, billed at actual | $1,500.00 |
| Catering | 2 passenger legs × $300 | $600.00 |
| Charter price before tax | 18,000 + 1,200 + 300 + 250 + 500 + 250 + 1,500 + 600 | $22,600.00 |
| Percentage tax | $22,600 × 7.5% | $1,695.00 |
| Domestic segment tax | 2 passenger segments × 4 passengers × $5.30 | $42.40 |
| Total quoted | 22,600 + 1,695 + 42.40 | $24,337.40 |
The two positioning legs carry no passengers, so the per-passenger segment tax on them is zero, but their charge is still inside the $22,600 the percentage tax applies to.
What the example shows
- Two fifths of the aircraft charge is positioning and minimums. $7,200 of the $18,000 comes from 1.2 empty hours and 0.4 minimum hours. A quote built from the passenger legs alone would charge $10,800 for the same 3.6 hours of flying.
- The daily minimum rule changes the price. Had the card counted every day away from base, day 2 would add a full 2.0 hours, another $9,000.
- The tax is mostly the percentage. $1,695 of the $1,737.40 in tax is the 7.5%. The segment tax grows with passengers and stops, so a trip with many short hops and a full cabin carries far more of it.
- Most of the trip fees are estimates. $2,800 of the $4,600 in trip fees are estimates. Mark them that way so the invoice can differ without an argument.
How to build the quote, step by step
- Lay out every leg, including positioning and repositioning, with the passenger count on each.
- Price the hours from the rate card, at block or flight time as the card says, positioning at its own rate.
- Apply the daily minimum on each day the card counts, then any trip minimum.
- Check duty and rest for the crew on that schedule, and add overnights or a second crew if the plan doesn’t fit.
- Add crew overnight and per diem for each night away.
- Add airport charges for each landing and each night parked, marked as estimates until the FBO confirms.
- Add de-ice as an estimate on any cold-weather departure, and catering as ordered.
- Add federal excise tax, 7.5% of the taxable amount, plus the current year’s segment fee × passengers on each taxable segment, unless an exemption applies.
- State the terms on the quote: block or flight time, which lines are estimates billed at actual, how long the price holds, and the cancellation terms.
- Compare the price with your cost for the same trip, so you know the margin you’re quoting.
Common charter pricing mistakes
- No written minimum rule. A daily minimum that counts days one way on this quote and another way on the next looks arbitrary to a repeat customer.
- Forgetting the segment tax is per passenger. On a charter it’s the segment fee times the passengers aboard, not once per segment.
- Using last year’s segment fee. It changes every calendar year. Check the current Form 720 instructions in January and when you quote a trip that flies after the new year.
- Estimates that don’t say they’re estimates. An FBO fee higher than the quote is easy to explain when the quote said “estimate” next to it.
- A quote that never meets the trip’s actual costs. Compare each flown trip’s costs with what you quoted, so next season’s card is built from what trips really cost.
Rate cards and quotes in Avion Desk
On the plan for charter operators, Avion Desk keeps a rate card for your aircraft and builds quotes from it, ready to print. The same plan adds Part 135 and Part 91K checks and the client portal. Each trip also shows what it cost, rolled up, so you can set the quote beside the trip’s actual costs. See the accounting features and pricing. To try it, start a free trial on the plan for charter operators and build a quote from your rate card for your next request, or request a demo.
Frequently asked questions
How much is federal excise tax on a charter flight?
For a taxable domestic charter in 2026, 7.5% of the amount paid for the transportation, plus $5.30 for each segment multiplied by the number of passengers aboard (IRS, Instructions for Form 720). The segment fee is indexed and changes each calendar year.
Is federal excise tax charged on positioning legs?
The percentage tax applies to what the customer pays for them: IRS Publication 510 lists “movement of aircraft in deadhead service” among amounts paid for transportation. The segment tax is figured per passenger, so a leg with no passengers adds none.
What is a daily minimum in charter pricing?
A floor on billed hours for each day, set on the rate card. If the day’s legs come to less than the minimum, the quote charges the difference at the hourly rate. Write down whether it counts days with a departure or every day away from base.
Should positioning be charged at the full hourly rate?
That’s the operator’s choice. Full rate, a set share of the rate, or no charge when the aircraft was going there anyway are all common. Whatever you choose, put it on the rate card and apply it the same way on every quote.
Do small aircraft pay federal excise tax?
Not if the aircraft’s maximum certificated takeoff weight is 6,000 pounds or less and it isn’t operated on an established line. A jet pays the tax at any weight (IRS Publication 510).
This article explains the rules in plain language and isn’t tax advice; the IRS publications and the Internal Revenue Code govern.
