How does the weather affect my private jet flight?

Consideration and constant monitoring of the day-to-day weather situation forms a key part of handling any flight. Our Client Services team works closely with the aircraft operators and crew when organising your flight, adjusting the route and calculating the timings using a number of weather planning tools and systems.

Different weather conditions impact your flight in different ways – from the everyday consideration of wind strength and direction, to the more unusual challenges of extreme heat, heavy fog or ice and snow. Here’s how.

Ice & snow

The main challenges for a private jet flight in very cold weather come on the ground. Aircraft are exceptionally well-designed to cope with freezing temperatures and snowfall once in the air. At 30,000 feet temperatures regularly reach as low as -80C, or even -100C without any problems.

So when it comes to factoring in ice or snow, the major focus is the condition of the runway and taxiway at the airport. And on de-icing the aircraft prior to the flight.

De-icing is a legal and safety requirement, for all private jet flights. With hangar space limited at most airports, standing aircraft will ice up in cold conditions – much in the same way as a car. Aircraft de-icing costs can add to the cost of a charter flight, but are inclusive for our Jet Card clients.

Private jets are less impacted than airline flights by heavy snowfall as they can use smaller airports, where snow clearing and de-icing can often take place quicker that at major hubs. There is a much smaller area of taxiway and fewer aircraft to keep clear (plus many private jets are kept out of the cold in hangars which reduces de-icing requirements).

And if all flights are grounded due to extreme snow, the agility of private charter means flights can return to normal immediately after restrictions are lifted. Whereas airline schedules often take days to recover.