King Air 350 Charter from Chicago

Who books a 350i, and what they are buying

The buyer profile is unusually consistent. It is a construction, agriculture, industrial-distribution or healthcare company with sites spread across Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, sending five to eight people out and back in a day. They are not buying speed — a light jet would shave twenty minutes off a 300 nm leg. They are buying the ability to put eight people and their sample cases into one aircraft, land at a 4,000-foot county field twelve minutes from the plant, and be home the same evening.

The second profile is the family that wants a cabin rather than a fuselage. At 54 inches wide and 19.5 feet long, the 350's cabin is longer than most light jets and far longer than anything in the very light class. It is a squarer, more usable volume than the numbers suggest, because the flat floor runs the whole length instead of stopping at a dropped aisle.

The third — and the one operators are quietest about — is the trip that starts or ends somewhere with no jet-capable runway at all. Northern Michigan, the Iowa river towns, the Wisconsin Northwoods, the Dakotas. The turboprop is not a compromise on those trips. It is the only aircraft that goes.

King Air 350 charter specifications

The figures below are typical-configuration published numbers. Individual serial numbers vary with interior fit, aftermarket winglets and how the operator loads the aircraft, so treat them as planning figures rather than guarantees for a specific tail.

The cabin, described honestly

At 57 inches of cabin height, nobody stands up in a 350. You board, you stoop for three or four steps, and you sit down. Once seated, the aircraft is genuinely comfortable: the standard double club arrangement gives four facing pairs with executive tables that fold out of the sidewall, and legroom in the club seats is better than most light jets because the fuselage is longer per seat.

The lavatory is belted, curtained — an aft seat with a curtain drawn around it. It works. It is not private in the way an enclosed door is private, and on a full eight-passenger flight most groups simply plan around it. That is the honest headline difference between this aircraft and a light jet, and for a 90-minute leg it rarely matters. For a four-hour leg with a mixed group, it matters a great deal.

Noise is the other thing nobody puts in a brochure. Two PT6A turboprops driving four-blade propellers a few feet from your shoulder produce a low, constant drone. Modern 350s have effective active noise cancellation in the sidewalls and the difference is real, but conversation is still noticeably more effortful than in a jet at altitude. Bring headphones if you intend to work.

Baggage is a genuine strength: 71 cubic feet in the aft compartment, loaded through a large door at ramp height rather than shoved into a nose locker. Golf bags, ski bags, trade-show pop-up displays and pallets of samples all go in without a conversation. Connectivity is the weakness — operator-dependent; many midwest 350s carry gogo avance l3, so confirm it on the trip sheet if the flight is a working one.

What it costs per flight hour

The typical market range for a Chicago-based 350i is $2,600–$3,400 per flight hour. That is a market range, not a quote: actual quotes vary with date, aircraft, crew duty, fuel price and availability, and a peak Friday in December will not price like a Tuesday in February.

Two things move a real quote away from that band. The first is positioning. If the aircraft lives at Chicago Executive and your trip starts at Chicago Executive, you pay for the hours you fly. If the only available 350 is sitting in Kansas City, you pay for it to come to you. The second is daily minimums — most operators bill one to two hours per day regardless of how little you fly, which quietly reprices an overnight trip with two 45-minute legs. Our private jet charter cost guide walks through how those line items stack up, and the hourly rate comparison by aircraft class shows where the turboprop sits against the jets above it.

The useful comparison is not dollars per hour but dollars per trip. A 350 at the top of its band flying a 250 nm leg in an hour and ten minutes will usually undercut a light jet doing the same leg in fifty-five minutes, because the jet's higher rate is not offset by fifteen minutes of saved time. Reverse that on a 900 nm leg and the jet wins outright.

Chicago routes where the 350 earns its keep

Every figure below is a block time — engine start to engine shutdown — not airborne time. Add roughly fifteen minutes on each end for the FBO, which is still a fraction of what a commercial itinerary costs you in the same corridor.

Against the PC-12 NGX and the CJ3+

The 350i is almost always shortlisted against one aircraft below it on price and one above it on speed. Here is the short version of each argument.

Versus the [Pilatus PC-12 NGX](/aircraft/turboprops/pilatus-pc-12/). The Pilatus is cheaper per hour and has a wider cabin. The King Air is faster, has a higher ceiling, carries substantially more baggage and has two engines — which matters less to safety statistics than most passengers assume, but matters a great deal to how some corporate flight departments and insurers write their policies. If your trip is a full eight seats with real luggage, the 350 is the more honest fit. If it is four people and a cargo door, the Pilatus wins.

Versus the [Citation CJ3+](/aircraft/light-jets/citation-cj3/). The CJ3+ is the step up to a real jet: an enclosed lavatory, a quieter cabin, a higher cruise and the ability to fly above most weather. It also costs meaningfully more per hour, and on legs under about 350 nm it does not save enough time to justify the difference. The line most Midwest buyers draw is roughly at the two-hour mark. Below it, the turboprop. Above it, the jet.

Before you book

• Ask which specific tail is being offered and what year the interior was refurbished — 350i cabins vary far more than the airframe does.
• Confirm whether the aircraft is flown by two pilots. Most Part 135 King Air operations are, but it is worth having in writing.
• If the destination is a short or unlit county field, ask the operator to confirm runway length, lighting and after-hours availability before you commit to a return time.
• Check whether the quoted hours include the positioning legs, and ask what the daily minimum is on a multi-day trip.
• If you need connectivity, get the Wi-Fi answer on the trip sheet rather than the phone call. Send us the trip details and we will confirm all of it against the actual airframe before you decide.