Comparing the Costs of the Learjet 45XR and the Citation Encore

Since the early 2000s, the Citation Encore and Learjet 45XR have been two of the most popular light business jets in the industry. They’re both on the larger end of the light jet spectrum, though the Learjet is quite a bit bigger, as the 45XR seats eight passengers and the Encore seats seven. Each of them also sit among the light jets with the furthest range at close to 2,000 nautical miles.

For consistency’s sake, we’ll use 200,000 miles per year as the common denominator in our comparison. The Encore cruises at around 419 knots, or 482 miles per hour, which means, in this scenario, you’re flying the Encore 415 hours in a year. The Lear 45XR’s cruise speed is 489 miles per hour, meaning it would take you 409 hours to fly 200,000 miles. Based on both fixed and direct costs, how much does it cost to operate each of these planes for a year? Let’s check it out.

Citation Encore

Direct Hourly Costs

Cessna’s Citation Encore burns right around 184.50 gallons of fuel per hour. At $5.00 a gallon, fuel is going to cost you $922.50 per hour. You can expect maintenance on an Encore to cost around $600.38 per hour. $292.40 of that is for the airframe, and $307.98 is for the engine and APU. With that being said, you’ll spend $1,522.88 on direct costs every hour between fuel and maintenance. At 415 hours, or 200,000 miles, that’s a total of $631,995.20 each year.

Fixed Annual Costs

Crew expenses for the Encore are, on average, $187,200.00 annually. To hangar an Encore, you’ll likely pay $35,100.00 for the year. Insurance, including hull and legal liability, will cost you $15,210.00 for the year. Pilot training will cost you $41,730.00 for the year. All of those fixed costs combined gives you a total of $279,240.00 annually.

At 415 hours, we’re looking at the following costs:

Total annual direct costs: $631,995.20
Total annual fixed costs: $279,240.00
Total annual cost: $911,235.20

Learjet 45XR

Direct Hourly Costs

The Lear 45XR burns 204 gallons of fuel per hour, which, at $5.00 a gallon, is $1,020.00 per hour. Maintenance on the Learjet is $640.41 per hour, on average, including $210.87 for the airframe and $429.54 for the engine/APU. Total fuel and maintenance costs give you a combined direct hourly cost of $1,660.41. At 409 hours (200,000 miles), you’re looking at spending $679,107.69 annually on direct operating costs.

Fixed Annual Costs

You’ll pay your 45XR crew $187,200.00 annually. You’re looking at about $36,562.00 to hangar the 45XR for a year, insurance will cost you $19,318.65 for the year, and pilot training will cost you $41,730.00. With all of that in mind, total fixed costs will be about $284,810.65 annually.

At 409 hours, that gives us:

Total annual direct costs: $679,107.69
Total annual fixed costs: $284,810.65
Total annual cost: $963,918.34

Comparison

Over the course of a year, you’d pay just over $50,000 more to fly the Lear 45XR over the Encore. Fuel burn and maintenance for the 45XR’s Honeywell TFE731 engines is where most of that extra money is going. You also get room for an extra passenger in the Learjet that has a cabin close to two and a half feet longer than the Encore’s. The Encore, on the other hand, has a range about 50 nautical miles longer and a climb rate that’s almost twice as fast.

VREF has the retail value of a 2006 Lear 45XR at $3.3 million, and a 2006 Encore at $2.9. In that case, you’re spending an extra $400,000 on the purchase of the Learjet and an extra $50,000 or so each year.

What do you think? Is the Learjet worth it?

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