According to Kevin O’Leary at Jet Advisors, the Citation Excel has maintained 104% of its value over the last five years – not bad considering that most planes will average about 70-80% of their original value, when sold by the fractional owner. As we discussed in our Guide to Private Air Travel, choosing a fractional program will depend on the plane that you want to use – and own – and residual value should be an important factor in your decision.

O’Leary says that compared to its closest competitor, the Lear 45, the Citation Excel is a tad slower, but uses less runway, and offers more cabin height and luggage space than the Lear. So all round, it’s a solid performer – and over that 5 year period, has a 17% value edge over the Lear – equating to $1.3M in retained value for the owner. That’s enough coin to payback the time it takes to do the research.