What is block time, and why am I billed on it?
Block time runs from engine start at the departure ramp to shutdown at arrival — taxi, climb, cruise, descent, all of it. It's the industry's billing unit because it's what the aircraft and crew actually spend.
The difference from 'flight time' matters on short legs: a 45-minute hop can be an hour-plus of block once taxi and departure sequencing are counted, and at $3,000+ per hour the distinction is real money. Our indicative engine pads great-circle flight time for exactly this, which is why wizard estimates track final quotes closely instead of surprising you upward.
Block time is also why the faster airframe sometimes wins on price: past roughly 1,500 NM, a super-mid's speed can buy back enough billed hours to beat a cheaper hourly in a slower cabin — the wizard runs that math per route automatically.
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Question answered. Price the trip.
Route, date, and passenger count — live indicative pricing in four steps, from the desk that wrote this answer.
The rest we answer live.
Anything this page didn't cover goes straight to a senior dispatcher — average pick-up under twenty seconds, every hour of every day.