Phenom 100 Charter from Chicago

The argument for the smallest jet

Most charter buyers arrive at the very light jet class by subtraction. They wanted a light jet, saw the number, and asked what comes below it. The Phenom 100EV is what comes below it, and it is a more serious aircraft than that framing suggests — a clean-sheet Embraer design certified in 2008 and updated in 2017 with more powerful engines and a Garmin G3000 flight deck.

What the money buys is altitude and speed. At 41,000 ft — flight level 410 — the aircraft is above almost all of the weather that makes a Midwest turboprop flight unpleasant in July, and at 405 knots it does Chicago to the East Coast in a little over two hours. That combination is not available at any lower price, in any aircraft, anywhere in the charter market.

What the money does not buy is capacity. Four seats in the club, occasionally a fifth. 4 in the club, a fifth seat available on some airframes. If your trip has five adults with luggage, the aircraft you actually want is a class up, and any broker telling you otherwise is optimising for their own booking rather than your flight.

Phenom 100 charter specifications

These are typical-configuration published figures for the EV variant. Earlier Phenom 100 and 100E airframes remain in charter service with slightly lower performance and older avionics, so confirm which one you are being quoted.

Cabin and onboard experience

The Phenom's interior is the reason it retains buyers who could afford a class up for short trips. The cabin is 61 inches wide and 59 inches high — the widest and tallest numbers in the very light class — and the design work shows in details that sound trivial and are not: the sidewall ledges are usable as tables, the window placement lines up with seated eye level, and the airstair door is wide enough that you are not performing gymnastics to board.

Club seating is four-place, two facing two, with genuine legroom for the size of aircraft. It is a seated cabin; nobody stands. On a two-hour leg with four people this is entirely comfortable. On a three-and-a-half-hour leg with four people and their bags, it is a small space and you will know it.

The lavatory is curtained, positioned aft. It is there for necessity, not comfort, and most passengers on a two-hour leg never use it. Connectivity is the weakest point on the aircraft: rare in this class; plan on cellular before departure. Download what you need before the airstair comes up.

Baggage is the pleasant surprise. 70 cubic feet is more than the Citation M2 offers and more than several light jets, split between a nose baggage compartment and a large aft hold that takes golf bags and skis without argument. For a class that is usually apologetic about luggage, the Phenom is unusually accommodating.

Typical hourly rates

The typical market range for a Chicago-based Phenom 100EV is $2,600–$3,300 per flight hour. As always, actual quotes vary with date, aircraft and availability, and this band describes what the market does rather than what any one operator will charge you on a specific Friday.

The interesting comparison is not against other jets but against the turboprops below it. A PC-12 at $1,900–$2,700 is cheaper per hour — but on a 600 nm leg the Phenom flies it in appreciably less time, so the gap in total flight cost narrows to something much smaller than the hourly rates suggest. Past roughly 500 nm, the jet's speed starts doing real work on the invoice. Under 250 nm, it does almost none.

The fixed costs are where the real surprises live on a small aircraft. Landing fees, FBO handling, federal excise tax and crew expenses do not scale down with the airframe, so on a short trip they can be a third of the total. Our charter cost guide breaks the invoice apart line by line, and the hourly rate benchmarks put this band in context against every class above it.

Where a Phenom 100 fits out of Chicago

This aircraft is at its best on one-to-two-and-a-half-hour legs with two or three passengers. The block times below are published figures for the very light jet class on these pairings.

Against the Citation M2 and the HondaJet Elite

Versus the [Citation M2](/aircraft/very-light-jets/citation-m2/). These two are the class. The M2 carries one more passenger, 372 nm more range and a marginally higher price. The Phenom answers with a wider, taller cabin and 24 more cubic feet of baggage. The decision usually resolves on the trip rather than the aircraft: if you are going more than about 900 nm or you have a fifth passenger, take the Citation. If you are going 500 nm with four people and skis, take the Phenom.

Versus the HondaJet Elite. The HondaJet's over-wing engine mounts free up the aft fuselage, which produces a quieter cabin and a genuinely clever internal layout for the size. It is the more interesting aircraft. It is also thinner on the ground in the Midwest charter fleet, which in practice means more positioning cost and less schedule flexibility on short notice out of Chicago. When both are available for the same trip the comparison is close; the Phenom simply wins on availability more often here.

If either comparison makes you think you want more aircraft rather than less, the honest next step is the Citation CJ3+ in the light jet class — an enclosed lavatory, seven seats and 2,040 nm of range for roughly a thousand dollars more per hour.

Questions worth asking your operator

• Which variant — 100, 100E or 100EV? The EV is faster and better equipped and should be priced accordingly.
• Four seats or five? A fifth seat exists on some airframes and not others, and it changes what the aircraft can do for a group.
• Is Wi-Fi fitted on this specific tail? In this class the answer is usually no.
• One pilot or two, and does the operator's insurance require a second crew member for your route?
• What is the payload with full fuel? On a small jet this is the number that quietly determines whether everyone's luggage flies. Send us the passenger and bag count and we will have the operator run it properly.