The most chartered business jet in the world by many counts: a stand-up cabin on a light-jet cost base, short-field ability the class cannot match, and parts support everywhere on the continent.
The Numbers That Matter
| Spec | Approximate Figure |
|---|---|
| Class | Midsize jet |
| Typical charter seating | 8 to 9 passengers |
| Range | about 2,100 nm |
| Cruise speed | about 440 knots |
| Cabin (length by width by height) | about 18.5 by 5.5 by 5.7 ft |
| Baggage | about 80 cu ft |
| Lavatory | Enclosed aft lavatory |
Figures are approximate manufacturer-class numbers for planning; individual aircraft vary by configuration, and your quote reflects the actual tail assigned.
Cabin, Seating, and the Bathroom Question
The Excel formula never changed: a shortened Citation X-width cabin on docile straight wings. It is the airplane charter desks reach for before thinking.
- Club four center cabin plus two forward seats and an aft bench area
- Eight passengers typical, nine on tails with the belted lav seat
- The dropped center aisle gives five feet seven of headroom, standing for most people
Yes, a fully enclosed aft lavatory with a flushing, externally serviced toilet. This is the class where the bathroom question stops needing an asterisk.
The midsize cabin is the first one that lets you forget the airplane: stand up, walk to the enclosed lav, pour a coffee mid-flight without choreography. Seats berth flat or nearly so on most types, the baggage hold swallows real luggage, and four hours passes in comfort rather than in patience. This is the class most first-time charter groups end up loving, because it feels like the private-jet idea they had in their head.
Baggage and What Fits
About 80 cubic feet in the heated aft compartment: ski gear for the cabin, golf for everyone, and the compartment height takes hard cases standing up.
Models and Variants
Charter listings rarely say which generation you are getting unless you ask. The family tree, so the name on your quote means something:
| Variant | What changed |
|---|---|
| Citation Excel | the 1998 original that invented the segment |
| Citation XLS | 2004, better engines and avionics |
| Citation XLS+ | 2008 onward: FADEC engines, the reshaped nose, Collins glass |
| Citation XLS Gen2 | 2021 refresh with a redesigned cabin; the Ascend successor is now arriving |
The Trips It Was Built For
Match the airframe to the mission and the quote gets better. This one earns its keep on: Business & Executive Ski & Mountain Trips Family Vacations Groups & Events
Flying It Out of Denver
The XLS+ is the default answer for six-to-eight people out of KAPA: mountain-capable enough for Eagle and Hayden, long-legged enough for Florida with one stop, and priced where midsize starts making sense.
Short-field numbers are the XLS superpower: it works out of Eagle, Hayden, and Rifle loads that force bigger jets to shed fuel, which is much of why Colorado charter fleets stock it.
From Centennial, published range comfortably covers Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Miami.
From KAPA this class flies the missions Denver actually generates most: six to eight people to either coast, ski-country support when the strip and the load allow, Florida with one comfortable stop or none. It is the class where families stop compromising and businesses stop apologizing, and the based fleet at Centennial runs deep enough that short-notice midsize requests usually find metal.
How Chartering One Works
The booking mechanics are deliberately boring: fill the form with dates, headcount, and gear; we place the request with certificates that actually operate this class locally; and the best quote lands with everything itemized, aircraft named, photos on request. If this exact type is not available for your dates, the quote says so and offers the closest equivalent cabin rather than pretending. You decide with the whole picture, free.
The Operator Behind the Tail
The tail number on your quote belongs to a certificated Part 135 operator: two professional pilots trained to airline-style recurrency, maintenance on a tracked program, insurance at commercial limits. That infrastructure is most of what the hourly rate buys, and it is why the cheapest number on the internet is not automatically the right one. We place trips with operators we would put our own families on.
When to Book
How far ahead to book depends less on the airplane than the calendar. Ordinary weeks: days of notice suffice, and same-day happens. Holiday corridors, big Denver event weekends, and spring break Fridays: the moment your dates are real, because this class sells out citywide and repositioning an aircraft in costs money that lands on the quote. Flexible dates flip the whole equation and open the discount inventory.
What It Costs to Charter
Midsize pricing buys the stand-up cabin: a meaningful step over light jets, usually justified the first time anyone stretches their legs. Rates move with dates, positioning, and the specific aircraft, which is why we quote trips rather than publish a rate card that would be wrong by Friday. The form below returns a real number, free.