How much does an aircraft ferry flight cost?
A ferry flight is priced as a complete movement rather than an hourly rate. The cost is built from crew and positioning, fuel uplift at each stop, overflight and landing permits, ground handling, insurance and any required ferry permit work. A short domestic narrowbody repositioning typically sits in the low five figures, while an oceanic widebody delivery with tech stops runs materially higher.
Key takeaways
- Ferry pricing is a movement price, not an hourly rate
- Fuel and permits move the number more than flight time does
- Unserviceable items and MEL relief change the route, and therefore the price
- A fixed quote should list crew, fuel, permits, handling and contingency separately
What actually sits inside a ferry quote
Buyers usually ask for an hourly rate, but a ferry flight is not an hourly product. The aircraft is yours, the crew is ours, and almost every cost line belongs to the route rather than to the airframe time. Two 737 movements of identical block time can differ by a large margin because one of them crosses three permit states and refuels at a station with no contract fuel.
- Crew: type qualified captain and first officer, positioning travel, duty rest and return travel
- Fuel: uplift at each stop, priced at contract rates where we hold them
- Permits: overflight and landing permits for every state on the route
- Handling: ramp handling, slots, GPU, start carts and customs paperwork
- Contingency: weather diversion, tech stop extension and crew duty reserve
The variables that move the number most
Fuel is the single largest line on most oceanic sectors, and it is also the most sensitive to routing. A tech stop that saves 40 minutes of flight time but sits at a station with no contract fuel can cost more than the longer leg it replaced.
The second largest swing is airworthiness condition. An aircraft flying on a ferry permit with an inoperative system may be restricted to day VFR, unpressurised altitudes or specific weather minima, which lengthens the route and adds nights on the road.
Questions we ask before quoting
We can usually return a fixed quote within a business day when we have the following. Anything missing becomes an assumption, and assumptions are what turn into change orders later.
- Registration, type and serial, plus current location and required delivery point
- Airworthiness status: full certificate of airworthiness, export CofA or ferry permit
- Open MEL or CDL items and any inoperative navigation or communication equipment
- Insurance: who is providing hull and liability cover for the movement
- Date window and whether the arrival is tied to a lease return deadline
Where owners lose money on ferry movements
The expensive failures are rarely in the air. They are in the days an aircraft sits waiting for a permit that was applied for late, in a crew that timed out because a tech stop handler was not booked, or in a fuel uplift bought at ramp rates because nobody arranged contract fuel in advance.
Pricing a ferry as one contracted movement removes most of that. One team owns the route, the permits, the fuel and the ground chain, so there is nobody to hand the delay to.
Common questions
Last reviewed June 2, 2026 by the Super Universal operations desk.