Cessna Citation Ultra

About the Cessna Citation Ultra

The Citation Ultra was Flying magazine's Best Business Jet in 1994, an evolutionary step up from the Citation V with hotter engines and a full glass cockpit. It seats up to 11 in a stand-up cabin and covers 1,960 nm with four passengers aboard. Those two figures do not combine: payload with full fuel is about 779 lb, so a full cabin trades fuel for seats and the published all-seats figure is 1,259 nm.

Who charters it

Charter operators favor the Ultra as one of the cheapest stand-up-cabin light jets available, useful on repositioning-sensitive trips where the lower hourly rate outweighs its dated cabin electronics. Read the seat count and the range separately rather than together. Payload with full fuel is about 779 lb, roughly four people, so 1,960 nm is a four-passenger number and Business Jet Traveler publishes 1,259 nm with every seat occupied. The eleven seats are a high-density ceiling rather than a cabin anyone flies far in. For a full cabin going any real distance, the operator runs a payload-range check for the specific trip.

A classic straight-wing short-field performer that can take off in roughly 3,200 ft at max weight, with charter sources citing Los Angeles to Aspen as a common Ultra route. ASE and EGE are workable with normal seasonal caveats and TEX is plausible with payload cuts, but this is a 1990s airframe with shrinking charter availability, so availability is the practical constraint more than performance.

Planning guidance only. The operator, the AFM performance data, and conditions on the day are the final authority.