Charter 101: Propelling Yourself into Turboprop Chartering

When thinking about charter aviation, the default assumptions usually revolve around jets. Whether discussing whether a pop star will make it to her future fiancé’s Super Bowl or debating when a woman’s pro sports league can ditch commercial air travel for charter, the conversation frequently centers on private jet travel.

However, jet engines aren’t the only one driving charter aviation. There’s another option that may seem less glamorous and luxurious, but which has its own advantages – turboprops. In fact, for some trips and for some travelers, turboprop aircraft may actually be the superior choice. If you’re wondering when you might want to look beyond jets for another alternative, read on.

Turbo-prop propeller. (Photo by Pileasmiles, iStock / Getty Images Plus)

Innie vs Outie

For those not familiar with aviation technology, a turboprop plane may seem similar to the type that the Wright Brothers flew near Kitty Hawk and Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic Ocean. Modern turboprops have at least one propeller that even the most inexperienced layman will notice immediately, in obvious contrast to jets.

However, once you move inside the engine, a turboprop looks very different from a traditional propeller. Propeller aircraft are driven by piston engines not unlike those found in cars. Mechanically, they aren’t very complicated – but they also aren’t very powerful, and they produce a significant amount of vibration. Turboprops, on the other hand, ditch pistons for turbines – gas turbines, generating hot gas that moves power turbines connected to gearboxes and propellers.

If this reference to turbines sounds familiar, it should – gas turbines are also used to power jet engines. “A turboprop is a jet engine. It’s just exterior,” says Wendi Matthews-Ortiz, Senior VP, Executive for Hunt & Palmer USA. “We consider turboprops part of the private jet industry.”

Propeller Engine. (Photo By Zranm, iStock / Getty Images Plus)

The concept for the turboprop engine was actually patented around the same time as that for the jet engine – turboprops in 1929, by Hungarian physicist and engineer György Jendrassik, and jets in 1930, by British inventor and aviator Sir Frank Whittle. However, while turboprops may have been conceptualized earlier, jet engines (pun intended) took off more quickly. Jet engines ditch external propellers altogether for turbines, pulling in air, compressing it and then mixing it with fuel to ignite it. This propels the aircraft forward with a great deal of power, yet with less vibration and noise than propeller options.

The superior speed and power of the jet engine interacted with increased demand for aviation options driven by World War II. While jet engines were not widely used during that war due to concerns about reliability and complexity, both the U.S. and the USSR viewed the technology as vital as the post-war world settled into the Cold War. Much like rocket technology, Germany’s advancements in jet engines were used by the victors to push forward their own innovations, with jet engines taking over from piston options for both military and large civilian transport uses by the 1960s.

But turboprop technology wasn’t forgotten – just somewhat delayed. Work on turboprop engines that was delayed by WWII was revived after the war. As governments and private entities worked out various issues with jet engines, the turboprop alternative began to attract interest due to its greater power-to-weight ratio and reliability versus piston engines.

Turbotastic

Turboprops survived post-WWII – and now – because they offer certain advantages over jet engines. The first and most notable? Simplicity. A turboprop engine requires fewer moving parts than a jet engine, meaning there’s less that can break. Lower maintenance costs translate to lower operating costs overall. But wait, there’s more – turboprops require less fuel per hour than jets and provide a higher power output per unit of weight despite having lighter engines.

A Pilatus PC-21 Propeller Aircraft Landing. (Photo By Patrick Gross, iStock / Getty Images Plus)

All of this means that turboprops require less time than jets to speed up enough for takeoff and to slow down enough to stop upon landing. This allows them to take off and land on shorter runways – and sometimes, on no runways at all (more on this later).

“Turboprops can reach the most remote airports,” says charter company Brighton Aviation in a discussion of jets versus turboprops. “By flying this type of aircraft, you have more airport destinations to travel to than a private jet.”

At The Beginning

The lower operating costs for turboprops mean they’re less expensive to charter than jets, making them a natural starting point for those looking to try out charter air travel. This trend was especially seen in the COVID-era increase in business aviation starting in 2021. Worldwide business jet traffic, although still higher than in pre-pandemic 2019, fell in 2023 after rising in 2021 and 2022, while turboprop departures continued to increase. “The role for turboprop is definitely the entry-level charter flyer who always flies first class on airlines,” says Matthews-Ortiz.

Would-be turboprop newbies, however, do have to keep some realities in mind. The lighter, simpler, more fuel-efficient engines of turboprops are less powerful than those of jets, meaning that they fly at lower altitudes and lower speeds. While this may not be very significant for short flights, it will become more of an issue the longer the flight – and turboprops have a somewhat limited range relative to larger jets. “For the 1-hour, 1 ½-hour or 2-hour flight, we can look at a turboprop,” Matthews-Ortiz clarifies. “You’re not going to fly from New York City to L.A. in one, though.”

A Beechcraft King Air on the runway in Mesa, AZ. (Photo By Aeon Aviation Photography, iStock / Getty Images Plus)

How much can you save? Stratos Jet Charters Inc., a premium private jet charter franchisor for charter brokers, estimates that the full hourly rate to charter a turboprop (including costs such as landing and airport fees) ranges from $4,000 to $4,900, as compared to $5,500 to $6,800 for a very light jet. While turboprops will take longer to reach their destination than light jets, thus increasing the time of the charter, this may or may not be relevant given the length of the journey planned.

As just one example, Hunt & Palmer’s Matthews-Ortiz estimates that a one-way trip from Atlanta to Miami on a chartered turboprop would cost about $13,000, as a starting price, and last about 2 ½ hours. An entry-level jet would cost a few thousand dollars more but would arrive in about 1 hour and 40 minutes. However, a turboprop will typically be almost as fast as a commercial jet flown by an airline – without the long wait time required for security in a commercial airport.

Matthews-Ortiz cautions would-be turboprop travelers to have reasonable expectations. Turboprops, like light jets, can offer premium beverages and snacks, but not a galley with ovens. Turboprop engines will also produce more noise and vibrations than jet engines – though newer models have improved on this somewhat. “A commercial airliner is quieter than a turboprop overall, but in a charter flight, you’re not dealing with noise from all of the other people that you would on an airline flight,” Matthews-Ortiz points out.

Why I Go to Extremes

Globally, there are more flights taken on business jets than on charter turboprops. In the first half of this year, for example, there were about 1.8 million departures on business jets, a 3% increase over the first half of 2024, compared with roughly 1 million global turboprop departures, 2% higher than in the same period in 2024.

Given that jets can offer a much longer range of flight distance, however, the fact that turboprop flights can hold their own in terms of popularity speaks to the advantages they can offer – especially for travelers going off of the beaten path. Remember what we said before about landing without runways? If you’re going to try that without a helicopter, a turboprop is likely your best bet.

“A turboprop does not have the sensitivity of a jet. It’s a lot more rugged,” says Paul McCluskey, Senior VP, Commercial for Hunt & Palmer USA Inc. “They can get into more places.”

Herd of impala near an airstrip in Botswana. (Photo by Brytta, iStock / Getty Images Plus)

For example, while the continent of Africa certainly has its share of airports, those looking to fly into the bush on safari likely will need to land on an airstrip rather than a concrete runway. While some business jets can touch down safely without concrete, turboprops are often a better fit for those hoping to see elephants and hippos in their native habitats. However, the climate in the bush isn’t the only one driving turboprop demand.

“You can land turboprops on ice, on snow, on gravel, on grass – you can land them on pretty much anything,” McCluskey muses. “You can put skis on them, or floats for islands that don’t have runways. That’s not something that – outside of perhaps Russia – anybody’s done with a jet. It’s a unique capability of propeller-driven aircraft and turboprops.”

In some cases, travelers may want to fly into cities on commercial flights or private jets, and then take a turboprop to a less developed location. For example, those looking to island-hop in the Caribbean without a boat should expect some turboprop offerings to be involved.

Charter aviation consultant Paul Travis remembers arranging for oil industry representatives to charter turboprops to journey to projects in less developed areas. He points out that turboprops can also be useful for trips outside of business or pleasure. “The turboprop market tends to be used a bit more for air ambulance over jets – you can access those smaller, out of the way airports more effectively,” he says.

Looking Ahead

Arguably, the most well-known line of charter turboprop aircraft worldwide is Beechcraft’s King Air. The latest model, the King Air 360, promises features such as an “enhanced digital pressurization system,” “Onboard Maintenance System updates,” “contemporary design cues found in luxury SUVs” and much more. However, charter customers shouldn’t expect the innovations to stop there.

“There’s the drive toward electric aircraft, and that is probably more suitable for a turboprop design than a jet design,” McCluskey says. “Aerodynamically, electric engines tend to be propeller-powered – that’s where they get their thrust from.”

So, while jet technology will obviously continue to evolve, expect turboprops to stick around. “There is a role for turboprops to play in the future of aviation,” McCluskey concludes. “There is the capability to advance the technology still, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds.”