Challenger 605 charter: cost, specs and range from Dubai

What the Challenger 605 is for

The Challenger 605 carries 9 to 12 passengers in a wide, flat-floor cabin with about 4,000 nm of range behind it. That puts it a class below the ultra-long-range Globals and Gulfstreams that sit at the top of the charter fleet, and a class above the super-midsize cabins. The market calls it a heavy jet or a large-cabin jet.

It is not a separate certificated model. EASA lists the 605 as a marketing designation of the CL-600-2B16, 604 Variant, covering serial numbers 5701 to 5990. The airframe first flew on 22 January 2006 and the first aircraft was delivered on 29 January 2007.

Production has ended. Sources put the run between 2006 and 2016 and the total delivered somewhere between 245 and 290 aircraft, and the Challenger 650 took its place on the line. The 2 General Electric CF34-3B engines, rated at 8,729 lb of thrust each, sit on the rear fuselage under a T-tail.

Challenger 605 charter cost from Dubai

Published hourly estimates for the Challenger 605 run from $6,000 to $9,000. The spread is that wide because these are broker estimates rather than transacted rates: one puts the type at around $6,000, another averages $8,000, another around $9,000.

None of those figures is Gulf-specific. No operator, broker or trade source publishes a Middle East hourly rate for the type, and UAE charters are quoted per trip anyway, with positioning, GCAA overflight and landing charges and Dubai FBO handling set by the routing rather than the clock. The type is on the UAE register and flown under GCAA air operator certificates, so a Dubai quote for one usually comes back from a charter company already based in the Emirates.

Those totals also assume the aircraft is already in Dubai. A one-way trip usually carries an empty leg at one end or both, which is why positioning is the line that moves a Gulf quote furthest from the hourly rate.

Range from Dubai

The headline number is 4,000 nm, and the conditions behind it matter. Bombardier quotes it for the identical 650 airframe at long-range cruise with 6 passengers and 2 crew, NBAA IFR reserves and ISA temperatures. AOPA's practical planning figure for the same aircraft is 3,700 nm at Mach 0.80, because reaching the book maximum means flying slower than most charter passengers accept.

Out of Dubai that makes it a Europe, India and Southeast Asia aircraft. Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong all sit near 3,200 nm and go nonstop, but only at the 424 kt long-range cruise setting, not at Mach 0.82. Johannesburg at 3,463 nm is the sector that winds and cabin load decide on the day, and it should never be sold as a guaranteed nonstop.

Payload eats into all of it. Maximum payload is 4,850 lb, but with full fuel the aircraft carries 1,298 lb, so a full cabin and a full tank do not go together. Warm days matter too: cruise altitude can be held down to the low 30s rather than the 41,000 ft ceiling, and lower altitude burns more fuel.

Inside the cabin

Cabin volume is 1,150 cu ft. Measured from the cockpit divider to the aft bulkhead the cabin runs 28 ft 5 in, or 25 ft 7 in if you count only the full-height section between the tapers at each end. It is 8 ft 2 in across at its widest and 6 ft 1 in high on the centreline, which is a stand-up cabin for most adults and a stoop for tall ones.

The standard layout is a single open tube with 2 seating groups: a horseshoe galley forward, a 4-chair club section, a 3-piece divan aft and an enclosed lavatory with a vanity at the back. There is no separate stateroom and no bulkheaded rear zone. The divan converts for sleeping on typical floorplans, though no published figure states how many passengers berth.

Baggage is where the 605 pulls away from smaller cabins. The bay holds 115 cu ft up to 900 lb and can be reached from inside the aircraft in flight. Windows run 8 per side. At 410 mm tall, 50 mm more than the Challenger 604's, they put roughly 30% more daylight into the cabin and, with the rounded tail cone, are what separates a 605 from a 604 on the ramp.

Pressurisation holds 8.8 psi, keeping a sea-level cabin up to 24,000 ft. One published measurement puts mid-cabin noise at 55 decibels at Mach 0.77.

How it compares

The Challenger 650 is the 605's direct successor and shares its type certificate, its fuselage and its 48,200 lb maximum takeoff weight. What changed is the engine rating, which cuts sea-level takeoff distance from the 605's 5,840 ft to 5,640 ft, plus a reworked galley and interior. The 650 was certified in November 2015 and first delivered on 17 December that year. The 650 is still in production, the 605 is not, and on the ramp the two are effectively identical.

Against the Challenger 350 the difference is cabin, not badge. The 350 is a super-midsize with a slimmer, longer-nosed fuselage; the 605 spans 64 ft 3 in, about 10 ft more, and carries the wider tube, the bigger baggage bay and the in-flight access to it. Choosing between them is a question of cabin size rather than range.

Against the Challenger 604 the planform is unchanged. The 605 added the taller, higher-set windows, the rounded tail cone and more cabin volume, quoted at 1,150 cu ft against the 604's 1,035 cu ft, though one operating-cost guide lists both at 1,146 cu ft. The gain is real but small.

Who should charter it, and who should not