Cessna Citation Cost: Reported Prices, Fleet and Emissions
PilotPassion

How Much Does a Cessna Citation Cost?

Textron Aviation publishes no Citation price list. Reported prices run from $2.295 million for the Mustang to $29.9 million for the Longitude, and the US register holds 5,738 valid Citations.

Compiled by PilotPassionReviewed by Keith M.
Updated 2026-10-25Cited 35 sources
Expert reviewed
A grey Citation business jet with the US Marines markings seen from above in flight over a lake and dry hills
A US Marine Corps jet, the military version of the Citation V, in flight over North Carolina in 2011. US Marine Corps photo, public domain.

The Citation isn't one jet. It's a family that runs from the small Mustang to the Longitude, and the price runs with it: the reported launch price of the Mustang was $2.295 million in 2002, and the reported 2023 price of the Longitude was $29.9 million. This page puts every dated price we can source in one place, next to the size and age of the US fleet and the carbon bill per flight hour.

Textron Aviation publishes no price list for the Citation, so every price here is one reported by a named publication. Reported prices for the 2023 Latitude and M2 Gen2 are $19.8 million and $6.15 million, so the Latitude was reported at 3.22 the M2 Gen2 in the same year. The US register holds 5,738 valid Citations.

$6.15 millionReported M2 Gen2 price, 2023
$29.9 millionReported Longitude price, 2023
5,738Valid US registrations
2007Median build year of the US fleet

Data used: FAA registry through 2026-10-16; NTSB files through 2026-09-30. Source periods are shown with each table.

Fifteen prices across the family

Every figure below is a price reported by a named publication on a stated date: Textron press coverage at launch, Aviation Week's 20/Twenty series, Business Jet Traveler and Flying. They're not quotes, and they aren't from one date. Some are launch prices, some are list prices from a later year and one is the price a Citation X+ sold new for. Compare them only within a model.

Show every reported price with its year and source

Textron Aviation publishes no price list. These are dated reported figures, not quotes. The CJ4 and Longitude list prices are attributed by Aviation Week to the Aircraft Bluebook. The Latitude launch price was reported as around that amount.

Citation Mustang

  1. 2002$2.295 millionlaunch. As reported by Flying Magazine, 'Cessna Mustang Rocks Jet World', FLYING Staff, 2002-11-01.

Citation M2

  1. 2013$4.4 millionlaunch. As reported by Flying Magazine, 'Cessna Citation M2 and Sovereign+ Certified', Bethany Whitfield, 2013-12-24 (price as stated in 2013 coverage).

Citation M2 Gen2

  1. 2021$5.855 millionlaunch. As reported by Aviation Week, 'Textron Aviation Unveils Citation M2 Gen2 and XLS Gen2 as NBAA Opens', Molly McMillin, 2021-10-11.
  2. 2023$6.15 millionlist. As reported by Business Jet Traveler, Citation M2 Gen2 article, Mark Huber, October 2023.

Citation XLS Gen2

  1. 2021$15.5 millionlaunch. As reported by Aviation Week, 'Textron Aviation Unveils Citation M2 Gen2 and XLS Gen2 as NBAA Opens', Molly McMillin, 2021-10-11.

Citation CJ4

  1. 2010$8.43 millionlist. As reported by Aviation Week, '20/Twenty: Citation CJ4 Challenges Competitors', Bill Carey, 2023-01-17 (Aircraft Bluebook figure). Factory-new list price. Aircraft Bluebook, as cited by Aviation Week..
  2. 2020$10.95 millionlist. As reported by Aviation Week, '20/Twenty: Citation CJ4 Challenges Competitors', Bill Carey, 2023-01-17 (Aircraft Bluebook figure). Factory-new list price. Aircraft Bluebook, as cited by Aviation Week..
  3. 2022$11.3 millionlist. As reported by Aviation Week, '20/Twenty: Citation CJ4 Challenges Competitors', Bill Carey, 2023-01-17 (Aircraft Bluebook figure). Gen2 factory-new list price. Aircraft Bluebook, as cited by Aviation Week..

Citation Ascend

  1. 2023$16.725 millionlist. As reported by Business Jet Traveler, Textron's Cessna Citation Ascend, Matt Thurber, May 2023.

Citation Latitude

  1. 2011$15 millionlaunch. As reported by Flying Magazine, 'Cessna Launches Citation Latitude', Isabel Goyer, 2011-10-10. Around the reported amount. This is an approximate launch figure..
  2. 2023$19.8 millionlist. As reported by Aviation Week, '20/Twenty: Long Prospects For The Praetor 500 and 600', Bill Carey, 2023-05-30.

Citation Longitude

  1. 2012$25.999 millionlaunch. As reported by Cessna press release via Business Wire on AviationPros, 'Cessna Announces Long-Range Citation Business Jet', 2012-05-15.
  2. 2019$26.9 millionlist. As reported by Aviation Week, '20/Twenty: The Longitude, Cessna's Super Mid Flagship', Bill Carey, 2023-11-27 (Aircraft Bluebook). Aircraft Bluebook, as cited by Aviation Week..
  3. 2023$29.9 millionlist. As reported by Aviation Week, '20/Twenty: The Longitude, Cessna's Super Mid Flagship', Bill Carey, 2023-11-27 (Aircraft Bluebook). Aircraft Bluebook, as cited by Aviation Week..

Citation X+

  1. 2018$23.3 millionunit. As reported by Business Jet Traveler, Cessna Citation X+, Mark Huber, March 2020 (Vref). Sold-new unit price for the stated model year, reported in March 2020. The article attributes values to Vref..

The same model moves with time. The reported Longitude price rose from $25.999 million at launch in 2012 to $29.9 million in 2023, which is 1.15 the launch figure. The CJ4 went from $8.43 million in 2010 to $10.95 million in 2020, and the Gen2 version was listed at $11.3 million in 2022.

The newest jet in the ladder is the Ascend, reported at $16.725 million in 2023. We have no sourced figure for the Sovereign or for the original Citation X, so they have no row. A Citation X+ from the 2018 model year sold new for $23.3 million, according to Business Jet Traveler, and that's a sale, not a list price.

Used prices decide most purchases, and we don't publish a used price. Brokers and dealers list asking prices, and one listing isn't a price. If you're pricing a real aircraft, an independent valuation and a pre-buy inspection matter more than any figure on this page.

The CitationJet line is the biggest group

The FAA register lists 5,821 Citations, and 5,738 of them (98.6%) hold a valid registration. We count the whole family from the Citation I to the Longitude and the Mustang. Cessna's piston and turboprop types are left out.

Valid US registrations by Citation groupFAA register, valid registrations only
  1. CitationJet and M2 line1,938
  2. Citation II family: 550, Bravo, Ultra, Encore1,214
  3. Excel and XLS738
  4. Latitude392
  5. Sovereign291
  6. Citation X285
  7. Mustang267
  8. Citation I247
  9. Citation III, VI and VII (650)200
  10. Longitude166

The FAA files the CJ1 to CJ4 and the M2 under shared certificate labels, so the M2 can't be counted on its own and sits in the CitationJet line.

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry

The median valid Citation was built in 2007, and 46.1% of those with a usable build year were built before 2006. That's a younger fleet than most business jet families, because the CitationJet and the newer models are still in production.

Registered Citations by decade of manufactureAircraft with a usable build year in the FAA register
  1. 1681970s
  2. 4241980s
  3. 8991990s
  4. 1,8922000s
  5. 1,2442010s
  6. 8042020s

389 records have a blank or invalid build year and are left out of the chart.

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry

Owners are mostly companies. Limited liability companies hold 3,648 valid registrations (63.6%) and corporations hold 1,227 (21.4%). Individuals hold 99 (1.7%).

A business jet that's registered to an operator isn't necessarily a private jet. 337 valid Citations, 5.9% of the fleet, carry the FAA's fractional-ownership flag. That's the flag NetJets-style programs use. By registration address, Texas leads with 678, followed by Florida (443) and Delaware (408). The state on the register is the registrant's address, not where the jet is based.

Show the fleet tables
US-registered aircraft
FamilyAll registration statusesValid registrations
Citation I and I/SP252247
Citation II, S/II, II/SP, V, Bravo, Ultra and Encore1,2251,214
CitationJet, CJ1 to CJ4 and M21,9681,938
Citation Excel and XLS747738
Citation III, VI and VII201200
Citation Sovereign294291
Citation Latitude403392
Citation Longitude174166
Citation X287285
Citation Mustang270267
Total5,8215,738

FAA registry through 2026-10-16. Registration does not establish active use or where an aircraft is based.

Registry insights by model group
Model groupValid registrationsMedian build yearExport-country cancellations
Citation I and I/SP247197985
Citation II, S/II, II/SP, V, Bravo, Ultra and Encore1,2141994203
CitationJet, CJ1 to CJ4 and M21,9382011312
Citation Excel and XLS7382006100
Citation III, VI and VII2001991.554
Citation Sovereign291200874
Citation Latitude392202029
Citation Longitude16620224
Citation X285200119
Citation Mustang267200997
Valid registrations: registrant types
Registrant typeAircraft
Individual99
Partnership11
Corporation1,227
Co-Owned705
Government32
LLC3,648
Non Citizen Corporation16
Valid registrations: registration states
Registration address stateAircraft
TX678
FL443
DE408
CA323
UT253
NC231
TN160
OK150
KS143
OR137
Missing state416

Rank nonblank STATE values by descending count with alphabetical ties. This is the registrant address, not where an aircraft is based. Trusts and LLC shells can concentrate registrations.

Valid registrations: recorded build years
MeasureRecorded value
Usable recorded build years5,394
Missing or invalid recorded build years344
Lower quartile build year1999
Median build year2007
Upper quartile build year2015
Oldest recorded build year1950
Newest recorded build year2026
Share of usable years before 200646.1%
Share of usable years before 201675.0%

Accept four-digit years from each configured conservative lower bound, 1900, through the snapshot year. Zero, blank, malformed and future years are excluded and counted. This validates calendar plausibility, not historical production. Exact models sharing a designation are not split by year. Sort valid recorded build years. Use linear interpolation at positions (n-1) times 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75. Age uses snapshot calendar year minus build year. Shares before 2006 and before 2016 divide by the validated-year count; unknown years are reported separately.

Download the fleet CSV by model and build year. Free to use, please link back. It counts all registrations and valid ones (status V) by model label and build year, including blank years, and contains no personal records.

Brazil takes the most

The FAA's deregistration file shows how many Citations leave the US register for another country. Since 2010, 977 cancellations carry an export country. Brazil leads with 248, 25% of them, followed by Venezuela (96), Canada (87) and Mexico (85).

The median age at export is 14, counted in years from the build year to the cancellation year. The file doesn't give reasons, and an export isn't a loss: it's a jet that's probably still flying.

Show the export tables
Recorded export countries
Country as recordedCancellations with export country
BRAZIL248
VENEZUELA96
CANADA87
MEXICO85
GERMANY61
ARGENTINA45
AUSTRALIA29
CHINA PEOPLES REP28
JAPAN23
SOUTH AFRICA20
Total with export country977

A nonblank EXP-COUNTRY is the only explicit export indicator supplied. Count those rows as recorded export-country cancellations. Keep all other cancellations and status codes separately. Country labels are retained as FAA recorded, including truncated labels. The registration status does not encode cancellation reason. Do not infer destruction, sale abroad or domestic retention from a missing country.

US register cancellations by year
Calendar yearCancellationsExport country recordedNo export country recorded
201077707
2011766511
2012726210
2013735320
2014735914
2015705218
2016554312
20171005842
20181125458
2019724923
2020773938
2021966432
2022895138
2023887117
20241217249
202514811533

Count DEREG records whose included model code and usable cancellation date fall in calendar years 2010 through 2025 inclusive. This is a snapshot of cancellations, not a complete historical export flow or a unique worldwide airframe count. Each record is counted once. No serial or registration identifier is decoded for deduplication. A nonblank EXP-COUNTRY is the only explicit export indicator supplied. Count those rows as recorded export-country cancellations. Keep all other cancellations and status codes separately. Country labels are retained as FAA recorded, including truncated labels. The registration status does not encode cancellation reason. Do not infer destruction, sale abroad or domestic retention from a missing country.

Age at recorded export
MeasureValue
Median age at export, years14
Known export ages794
Unknown or invalid export ages183
Expired-status cancellations156

Cancellation year minus YEAR-MFR for export-country rows with four-digit build years from the configured lower bound through the cancellation year. Report unknown or invalid ages separately. Median uses the same linear interpolation. The supplied DEREG layout has no cancellation-reason field. Its status is registration status, not an export or destruction code. Destruction and sales abroad without a country cannot be identified. Expired-status cancellations can be counted by status; missing-country rows are not assumed domestic.

From a fifth of a car-year to nearly one

Private Jet Card Comparisons lists seventeen Citation models. The Mustang burns 90 US gal per hour, the CJ3 burns 149 US gal per hour, the Excel burns 250 US gal per hour, the Longitude burns 316 US gal per hour and the X+ burns 400 US gal per hour. The X+ burns 4.44 the Mustang. The figures are average burns published by Conklin & de Decker, as listed by Private Jet Card Comparisons, which gives no data date. They assume two pilots and four passengers.

Multiply by the US EPA's emission factor for jet fuel, 9.75 kg CO2 per US gal, and an hour in a CJ3 releases 1.45275 tonnes CO2 per hour. The EPA puts a typical US passenger vehicle at 4.29 tonnes CO2 per year, so one hour is 0.34 of a car-year. Pick another model below and enter your own flight hours.

These are combustion emissions only. They exclude fuel production, and the burn varies with load, weather and route.

Show the fuel burn and carbon dioxide table
Published fuel burn and carbon dioxide
ModelAverage hourly fuel burnCombustion carbon dioxide per hour
Citation I/ISP160 US gal per hour1.56 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Bravo170 US gal per hour1.6575 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation CJ1134 US gal per hour1.3065 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation CJ2141 US gal per hour1.37475 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation CJ3149 US gal per hour1.45275 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation CJ3+148 US gal per hour1.443 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation CJ4209 US gal per hour2.03775 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Encore205 US gal per hour1.99875 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Excel250 US gal per hour2.4375 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Latitude315 US gal per hour3.07125 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Longitude316 US gal per hour3.081 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation M2134 US gal per hour1.3065 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Mustang90 US gal per hour0.8775 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation Sovereign281 US gal per hour2.73975 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation X386 US gal per hour3.7635 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation X+400 US gal per hour3.9 tonnes CO2 per hour
Citation XLS239 US gal per hour2.33025 tonnes CO2 per hour

Average hourly fuel burn, Conklin & de Decker/JSSI, as listed by Private Jet Card Comparisons. No data date is given.

The purchase price is the start of the bill

A Citation's running costs are real money, and we publish no hourly figure, because no maker or regulator gives one and many online estimates come with no source. What we can offer is the arithmetic of the choice a buyer faces: charter a jet when you need one, or own.

Owning has a fixed bill that arrives whatever you fly, plus a cost for each hour. Chartering has only the hourly rate. The break-even is the number of hours where the two cross. Enter your own quotes below. Nothing is pre-filled, because a made-up default would only give you a confident wrong answer. For a turboprop alternative see our guide to what a King Air costs, and for the other end of the market what Gulfstream jets cost.

Well below the break-even, charter is cheaper. Well above it, owning wins. In between, it comes down to how much you value having the jet ready when you are.

What the NTSB files hold

Every NTSB entry is a real event, and the counts are all this page claims to know. The NTSB lists 235 accidents involving Citations from 2000 through 2025. Of those, 68 were fatal, with 329 deaths in total.

NTSB accidents per year, CitationsDistinct accidents by event year
  1. 2000
  2. 2005
  3. 2010
  4. 2015
  5. 2020
  6. 172025

Counts only. The NTSB does not record how many hours the family flew, so these bars are not rates.

Source: NTSB aviation accident database

Landing is where 86 of the 235 accidents began, about 37%, with enroute next at 31 and approach at 26. Takeoff accounts for 16. That's a large count for one family, but it covers a large fleet across the 2000 to 2025 window, and the data holds no flying hours to divide by.

Show the NTSB tables
NTSB accident counts by family
AircraftAccidentsFatal accidentsReported event deaths
Citation I and I/SP331755
Citation II, S/II, II/SP, V, Bravo, Ultra and Encore872688
CitationJet, CJ1 to CJ4 and M26116148
Citation Excel and XLS1617
Citation III, VI and VII10522
Citation Sovereign600
Citation Latitude100
Citation Longitude000
Citation X815
Citation Mustang1224
Citation, series not stated100
Total23568329

2000 to 2025. US-focused NTSB records, including some foreign events where NTSB took part. These are not worldwide totals. Counts never establish rates or safety rankings. Reported deaths include other aircraft and ground deaths in a collision. Different families in one event have a separate row.

Uncounted NTSB events
ScopeAccidents left outFatal accidents left outReported event deaths left out
Not included in family totals423

These model labels do not identify a commercial aircraft. The counts are excluded from all family totals and annual counts.

What to take from the numbers

  • There's no price list. The reported prices run from $2.295 million for the Mustang at launch in 2002 to $29.9 million for the Longitude in 2023.
  • Prices move over time. The reported Longitude price in 2023 was 1.15 its launch price.
  • Fuel burn spans a wide range. The listed burn runs from 90 US gal per hour to 400 US gal per hour.
  • The fleet is mixed in age. The median valid Citation was built in 2007.
  • Budget for the aircraft, not the price. Use the break-even tool with your own quotes.

Questions buyers ask

How much does a Cessna Citation cost?

Textron Aviation publishes no price list. The reported prices we found run from $2.295 million for the Mustang at launch in 2002 to $29.9 million for the Longitude in 2023. They come from different dates.

How much does a Citation Longitude cost?

Aviation Week reported $29.9 million for the Longitude in 2023, citing the Aircraft Bluebook. Cessna's launch price in 2012 was reported at $25.999 million.

How many Citations are there in the US?

The FAA register lists 5,821 Citations, 5,738 with a valid registration.

How much fuel does a Citation burn?

Private Jet Card Comparisons, citing Conklin & de Decker, lists 90 US gal per hour for a Mustang, 149 US gal per hour for a CJ3 and 400 US gal per hour for an X+.

How many Citation accidents are in the NTSB records?

The NTSB lists 235 accidents from 2000 through 2025, 68 of them fatal. These are counts, not rates.

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Sources and how the numbers were made