Choosing the right jet category. Three questions settle it, and only one of them is about the aircraft.

Every charter conversation we have begins with the same three numbers. How many of you are travelling, what you are bringing, and how far the longest leg is. Those settle the category almost every time, and everything else is a refinement within a class rather than a choice between classes: the interior, the age of the aircraft, whether there is a cabin attendant.

The reason the order matters is that seats and baggage run out at different points. Aircraft are certified for a number of passengers that the hold very often cannot support, and a light jet certified for seven is a five person aircraft the moment those five bring hard cases. The number that counts is not how many people can sit down; it is how many people can sit down with what they are actually carrying.

Odyssey arranges aircraft, so the categories below are guidance rather than a list of what we have standing outside. When we quote, the specific aircraft, its cabin layout and its real hold volume are confirmed for you before anything is agreed. What follows is the map of the territory.

A brochure range assumes a particular number of passengers, a particular fuel load, still air and a long runway at sea level. Fill every seat, load the hold, add a winter headwind across the Atlantic, and the honest figure is meaningfully shorter. On a westbound transatlantic sector in January this is not a technicality: it is the difference between flying to New York and stopping in Ireland or the Azores on the way.

Hot weather and high airfields do the same thing to take-off performance. An aircraft that will lift a full load out of Luton on a cold morning may need to leave fuel or passengers behind at an alpine field in August. This is why an operator will sometimes propose a larger aircraft than the seat count suggests, and it is usually a good reason rather than an upsell. Ask for the reason and you will get it.

The practical rule is to give whoever is quoting the full picture: every passenger, every bag, the time of year and the actual airfields, including the return. A quotation built on four passengers and a weekend bag does not survive a fifth person and a set of golf clubs appearing on the Thursday. See how private jet charter works and the cost guide for what else moves a quotation.

A number of the destinations our clients most want to reach have airfields that simply refuse the obvious aircraft. Samedan for St Moritz sits high in the Engadine and is demanding in both performance and weather. Sion and Chambery serve the Alps with approaches that require specific crew qualification and turn difficult quickly in winter. St Barths takes only small aircraft onto a very short runway, which is why almost everybody arrives from a neighbouring island.

In those cases the sequence reverses: the airfield decides the category, and the category decides how many of you can travel and what you can bring. A turboprop or a very light jet into the mountain field, or a larger aircraft into the valley airport with a road or helicopter transfer for the last part, are the two honest answers, and which is better depends on the party and the weather far more than on preference. Our ski destinations and alpine airport pages set the options out field by field.

The same logic applies at the London end. London City requires specific aircraft and operator approval for its steep approach, which excludes a good deal of the fleet, and Northolt works by slot and permission. Our guide to London's private terminals compares all seven fields on drive times and constraints.