Chicago Private Jets arranges passenger flights across eleven aircraft categories, from single-engine piston aircraft up to VIP airliners. Which one suits a trip out of Chicago comes down to four things: how many are traveling, how far you are going, what is traveling with you, and what the operator can do at both airports on the day.
Start With the Trip, Not the Aircraft
Most people arrive with an aircraft in mind and it is usually not the one they end up flying on. Tell us the route, the dates and the passenger count instead, and your advisor will narrow the options and send you a short list that fits. That conversation takes a few minutes and generally saves money.
Short-haul dominates this market. The corridors that come up week after week out of Chicago are Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Nashville, most of them around an hour in the air. That puts very light jet, light, super light and midsize jets at the center of what we arrange.
Where the Categories Divide
Piston aircraft and turboprops reach the shorter and unpaved fields that jets cannot use, which matters for Michigan, Wisconsin and downstate Illinois. Super midsize jets are frequently the smallest aircraft that cross the country nonstop from here. Heavy and long range jets handle the transatlantic runs, the Caribbean and Mexico, which matters in a market with this much corporate travel. Helicopters cover the Chicago-area movements where a road trip is not an option.
Winter is part of the planning here rather than an afterthought. De-icing season runs from roughly November through March and affects departure timing, ramp availability and cost across the Chicago-area fields.
Group Size Changes the Rules
Above nineteen passengers a trip calls for an airliner-size aircraft and no longer falls under FAR Part 135. Those flights operate under FAR Part 121 or a foreign equivalent, which generally carries stricter crew and operating requirements than both FAR Part 91 and Part 135. Our VIP airliner page covers that end of the fleet. Give us the full headcount early, because it changes the aircraft available and the lead time.
Which Chicago Airport
You are not tied to one field here, and that is part of the value. Midway and DuPage are towered around the clock, Gary/Chicago runs to eleven at night, and Chicago Executive, Waukegan, Aurora and Lewis University all close in the evening. For an early departure or a late return, that difference decides the airport.
Customs is the other thing to settle early on an international trip. Midway is an international airport of entry and DuPage has clearance on the field around the clock, while Chicago Executive and Waukegan run a weekday afternoon window with prior notice and no weekend clearance at Chicago Executive at all. A weekend arrival into Waukegan has to be requested before the end of Friday afternoon. Gary has a general aviation CBP facility on the field.
Whether a particular aircraft can use a particular airport on your date is the operator’s call for that aircraft, that weight and that day, and your advisor will confirm it before anything is booked.
Talk to an Advisor
Call +1-888-987-5387 at any hour, or send the trip through our contact page. You can read how we check operators, crews and insurance on our safety page.