Private flying sounds simple until you see the price list. Wheels Up, the US-based charter and membership company now backed by Delta Air Lines, has laid out its numbers — and they give a rare, honest window into what charter really costs.

The company started about 13 years ago with King Air turboprops serving short hops in the northeastern US, then scaled up to a fleet built around Embraer Phenom and Bombardier Challenger jets. Everything changed in October 2023, when Delta invested and became its largest shareholder; former Delta board member George Mattson now runs the show. His pitch is "sensible private aviation" — flying privately only when it genuinely buys you time.

Membership, called Signature, launched in September 2025 at $500 a month plus a flight deposit. More than 1,500 people have signed up so far. The clever bit: your balance is tracked in dollars, not hours, so you're not locked into a specific aircraft type, and unused funds roll over without penalty. Members get guaranteed availability and pricing on the US fleet, and can spend their balance on international charter, seaplanes, helicopters, and even Delta flights.

You don't need a membership at all — anyone can book a one-off charter, and for travellers outside the US (the company has a team at London Gatwick) that's usually the better route. Wheels Up taps a network of over 7,000 safety-vetted third-party aircraft worldwide, handling the permits, slots, and remote-airstrip logistics most of us would never want to negotiate ourselves.

Now the numbers. A Phenom 300 light jet runs roughly $8,000–$8,500 per flight hour; a Challenger around $11,000–$12,000. New York to Florida lands in the low $20,000s, while a coast-to-hop to Los Angeles might cost $45,000–$50,000. Transatlantic trips use bigger aircraft but at a lower effective hourly rate, since the cost spreads across a longer flight.

The Delta partnership is the most interesting angle for regular travellers. The idea: fly private where commercial is painful, commercial where it isn't. Mattson's example — chartering a private hop to JFK for a group of four or five, saving around eight hours versus a awkward scheduled connection, for roughly $10,000 extra — makes the value case concrete. A Wheels Up-to-Johannesburg-then-charter-to-Mozambique safari itinerary shows how far the model stretches. There's even a tie-up with Fraser Yachts, potentially using seaplanes to reach yachts in the Bahamas.

Worth noting: Mattson himself flies Delta First between New York and Atlanta because frequent commercial service makes private flying pointless there. That honesty is the takeaway — this is a tool for specific trips, not a lifestyle default.

For anyone weighing private aviation for the first time, this is one of the clearest pricing breakdowns in the industry — including when NOT to fly private.

Via Elite Traveler.