How to read an aircraft comparison

The range row carries the manufacturer's published figure: the distance achievable in ideal conditions — moderate payload, no wind, strict reserves. A real flight always falls short: four more passengers, baggage, a hundred-knot headwind, and the gap easily reaches ten percent. That is why our comparison does not simply print the number: enter a departure and an arrival and it says, for each aircraft, non-stop, at the edge, or fuel stop needed. "At the edge" means the leg exceeds 90 % of the published range: technically feasible, but the day's payload decides.

Nobody publishes a reliable model-by-model rate: the available bands cover a whole class — light, super-midsize, ultra-long-range. Two aircraft in the same class therefore show the same band, and the comparison says so on every row rather than implying a precision that does not exist. The firm price depends on the specific aircraft, its base, the season and empty repositioning; it is confirmed by quote, all-in, within sixty minutes.

MMo is the certified maximum speed, expressed as a fraction of the speed of sound — Mach 0.925 on a modern long-range jet. It is not the speed the aircraft normally flies: long-range cruise sits below it, and that is what sets flight times. On Paris–Geneva a few hundredths of a Mach change nothing; on Paris–Singapore they are worth half an hour. Manufacturers publish range in nautical miles (1 nm = 1.852 km): we show kilometres with the original figure in brackets, so a page stays comparable with the manufacturer's own documentation. The glossary covers each of these terms.

In buy mode two levels of figures sit side by side. The model page gives the certified maximum: what the airframe can take. The listing describes one specific aircraft with its real layout — almost always less dense, because space beats seat count. A Global 7500 certified for nineteen commonly flies with fourteen, a stateroom and a dining area. Where the two differ, the listing page says why in plain words. Every listing also carries the date the seller last confirmed it: past a month it is flagged for reconfirmation and drops out of the comparison.

A table is not a mission. It ignores real availability on your dates, the maintenance state of the specific aircraft, the crew, the cabin's finish and the constraints of the departure field — altiport, curfew, runway length. Nor does it weigh your priorities: at equal range, one aircraft may suit you better because it lands at Courchevel, or because it is based twenty minutes away. The comparison narrows the field to two or three credible candidates; the rest is decided with an advisor, on your dates.