Faro to London Private Jet — 2h38, from €11 800

The route at a glance

This is a route defined by a long-standing connection rather than by a season. The Algarve has been a second home for British families and a working destination for British golf for decades, and the traffic reflects that: it is heavier than the coastline's size would suggest, it runs in both directions, and it does not switch off in October the way a purely Mediterranean route does. The practical consequence for someone flying north is a good one. Aircraft have reasons to be in southern Portugal in most months, and a quotation that does not have to carry a long empty positioning flight is a materially cheaper quotation.

Distance

1,757 km

949 nautical miles great-circle, Faro to London Luton

Flight time

approx. 2 h 38

An estimate from our published-times model rather than a measured block time, and the same figure both ways — though flown north-east you usually have the prevailing westerlies on your shoulder rather than your nose

Departure

FAO

Faro LPFR, the only airport on the Algarve, with business traffic handled away from the scheduled terminal

Arrival

LTN / FAB / BQH

Luton EGGW, Farnborough EGLF or Biggin Hill EGKB — the real choice on this page, and it belongs to your London postcode

Typical aircraft

Midsize

Citation XLS+, Hawker 800XP, Citation Latitude

Busiest months

Jun – Sep

The summer peak, with May and October as the shoulder. The golf calendar adds a second, quieter rhythm in spring and autumn

Distance is the great-circle figure between airport coordinates from the OurAirports open dataset. The flight time is an estimate, not a measured block time: it comes from a simple model fitted to the flight times Diamond Executive Aero Services already publishes on this website, and it moves with airway routing, wind, slots and aircraft type. Your quotation carries the real schedule.

Which airports we use

One airport at the Algarve end and three in London, which puts the entire decision at the arrival rather than the departure. It is worth making that decision properly: the three London fields are minutes apart in the air and can be an hour apart on the road at the end of a long day.

Airport	Codes	Great-circle to London Luton	Suits you if
Faro	FAO / LPFR	1,757 km	The Algarve's only airport, and a convenient one: nowhere on the coast from Sagres to the Spanish border is a long drive from it. Business traffic is handled away from the scheduled terminal, which is what keeps the ground time short at the start of the flight. It is the departure for essentially all of this traffic.
London Luton	LTN / EGGW	arrival	Where most of this traffic lands and the field with the deepest choice of aircraft on any given day, about fifty kilometres north of central London. The right arrival for anyone heading north or west of the city, and the one that makes short-notice bookings easiest.
Farnborough	FAB / EGLF	a comparable sector	South-west of London, business aviation only and with no scheduled traffic at all, so it gives the shortest ground time of the three on arrival. It is also the natural arrival for Surrey, Hampshire and the Thames Valley, and being on the south-west side of London it is, if anything, marginally the shorter sector from Portugal.
London Biggin Hill	BQH / EGKB	a comparable sector	South-east of London and the best arrival for south and east London, Kent and the City. Being on the far side of the city from Portugal it is marginally the longer sector, which over two and a half hours is meaningless next to the road time it can save.

Airport coordinates and codes: OurAirports open dataset, retrieved 23 August 2026. London Luton movement count: EBAA 2023 via Private Jet Card Comparisons, 4 June 2024. Sector lengths to Farnborough and Biggin Hill are described as comparable rather than measured, because we have not computed them from the same dataset and the difference is not what decides the choice.

Aircraft for Faro to London

At 1,757 km a light jet has the range comfortably and will fly the route without complaint. We still put most parties on a midsize cabin, and the reason is the clock rather than the map: two and a half hours in a seat you cannot stand up from, at the end of a holiday or before a morning of meetings, is a different experience from an hour to Paris.

Cessna Citation XLS+

Seven to eight passengers, a stand-up cabin and 2.55 cubic metres of hold. The type we propose first here, because the hold is what a fortnight in the Algarve actually needs and golf bags are bulky rather than heavy.

See the Cessna Citation XLS+ ›

Hawker 800XP

Six to eight passengers, full galley and a separate lavatory, with 5,463 km of range that treats this sector as a short hop. The right answer when London is the middle of a longer day rather than the end of one.

See the Hawker 800XP ›

Cessna Citation Latitude

A newer midsize cabin with a flat floor and the quietest interior of the three. Worth naming when the passengers want to work on the way north, or sleep, rather than simply endure the time.

See the Cessna Citation Latitude ›

All three types are on our own fleet pages. Light jets fly this sector perfectly well and cost less: say so if the priority is the number rather than the cabin and we will quote both. Tell us how many golf bags are travelling at the same time as the passenger count — on this route the hold is usually the binding constraint.

What it costs

From €11 800 one way. Indicative starting price for this route, rounded down. The date, the aircraft actually available and airport fees move it — tell us your dates and we confirm within 30 minutes.

No published price for the Faro to London city pair has reached us from a source we would be willing to reprint, so the figure above is our own floor rather than a quotation, and the table below carries published hourly references for the cabin class instead.

The number on this route is driven by the traffic imbalance more than by anything else, and the imbalance runs in your favour when you are flying north. A great deal of what arrives in the Algarve comes from the United Kingdom, which means aircraft are regularly in southern Portugal needing to get home. Ask for a northbound leg on a date when something is already heading that way and the arithmetic changes completely.

The way to exploit that is to be honest about flexibility. Tell us which day could move and by how much, rather than asking for a single fixed hour and then negotiating. On this corridor the difference between two adjacent days is frequently larger than any discount that could be argued for on the same day.

Reference	Aircraft or cabin	Indicative figure	Source
Hourly rate, midsize	Europe	8,400 - 12,900 EUR per hour	Broker published range, undated, retrieved 23.08.2026
Hourly rate, midsize	Europe, from	from 4,500 EUR per hour	Broker entry-level rate, 19.02.2026
Hourly rate, midsize	Europe, guide	4,700 - 5,500 USD per hour	Paramount Business Jets, published hourly guide, August 2026
Empty leg	varies	brokers publish discounts of 50-75%	broker price pages, all retrieved 23.08.2026

These are third-party published hourly references for the cabin class, shown so that you can sanity-check any quotation, ours included. They are not our offer. Our own starting figure is built from the entry-level published rate in the second row and the flight time at the top of this page, rounded down. Because so much of the Algarve's private traffic originates in the United Kingdom, this is a route where asking about empty legs is genuinely worth the question. Only a written quotation from Diamond Executive Aero Services, against your dates, is a price. Call +357 95 119759, 24/7.

When to fly, and when to book early

The Algarve runs two calendars. The beach calendar peaks in July and August and empties by November. The golf calendar does almost the opposite, filling the spring and the autumn when the heat has gone and the courses are at their best. Departures to London feel both, and the quietest weeks are not the ones people expect.

Period	What happens	What to do
June to September	The summer peak. Family traffic dominates, Saturdays and Sundays carry the turnover, and the airport is at its busiest in the middle of the day.	Two to four weeks for a weekend departure in high summer, one to two midweek. If you are returning at the end of a let or a rental week, book the northbound leg when you book the holiday rather than in the last few days.
March to May and September to November	The golf shoulder, and the most pleasant time to be there. Traffic is steady rather than spiky, the weather is reliable and aircraft are easier to place.	One to two weeks is usually enough. This is also when a larger cabin is most likely to be available for close to the price of a smaller one.
December to February	The quiet stretch, broken only by the Christmas and New Year fortnight, which is busy in both directions and should be treated like high summer.	Short notice generally works outside the festive fortnight. For late December, book as early as you would for August.

Seasonality classification: routes_shortlist.csv, Diamond Executive Aero Services route research, 23 August 2026. The general European July-August trough described by EUROCONTROL in "Getting to the Point: Business Aviation in Europe", Trends in Air Traffic vol. 1, applies to business traffic and runs opposite to leisure demand such as this. London Luton movement count: EBAA 2023. Google search-suggestion evidence: "private jet faro to london" and "private jet luton to faro", measured 23 August 2026. The description of the Algarve golf calendar is general knowledge of the destination rather than a figure we have measured.

Arriving in London

The flight is the simple part of this journey. The part worth deciding in advance is which of the three London fields puts you closest to where you are actually going.

Three fields, one city

Luton, Farnborough and Biggin Hill are a few minutes apart in the air and can be an hour apart on the road. At the end of a two-and-a-half-hour flight that hour is the difference people remember. Give us the postcode.

Ask which field ›

Into the centre by helicopter

All three London business-aviation fields handle helicopters, which is the quickest way from an outer field into the middle of the city. Our own published rates start at 750 EUR per hour on a Eurocopter AS350.

Helicopter charter ›

Or on to Lisbon and Porto first

Plenty of Portuguese trips take in more than the Algarve. Lisbon and Porto are both published routes from London on this site, which makes a two-city week straightforward to arrange as one booking.

London to Lisbon ›

Questions we get about this route

How long is the flight from Faro to London by private jet?

About 2 hours 38 minutes non-stop, and we publish the same figure for the flight south. The great-circle distance from Faro to London Luton is 1,757 km, or 949 nautical miles. That time is an estimate from our own published-times model rather than a measured block time, and real block time moves with airway routing, wind, slots and aircraft type. Flown north-east you usually have the prevailing westerlies on your shoulder rather than against you. Allow roughly fifteen minutes on the ground at each end.

Which London airport should we land at?

Whichever is nearest to where you are actually going, and it is worth deciding before the day. Luton carries the widest choice of aircraft and suits anyone heading north or west. Farnborough handles business aviation only, so the ground time on arrival is the shortest of the three, and it is the natural arrival for Surrey, Hampshire and the Thames Valley. Biggin Hill is much the best for south and east London, Kent and the City. Send us the postcode and we will name the field rather than let you pick from a map.

How much does a private jet from Faro to London cost?

From EUR 11 800 one way for the whole aircraft as our own floor, on a midsize cabin. We have not found a published price for this exact city pair from a source we would reprint, so the page carries hourly references instead: brokers publish 8,400 to 12,900 EUR per hour for midsize cabins in Europe, with entry-level rates quoted from 4,500 EUR per hour, and a separate guide quotes 4,700 to 5,500 USD per hour (retrieved 2026). Those are their figures, not our offer. On this route the single biggest variable is whether an aircraft is already due to head north.

Is there another airport on the Algarve?

Not for practical purposes. Faro serves the whole coastline, and because the Algarve is long but narrow, no part of it is a serious drive from the airport. Lisbon is a long way north and only makes sense if the trip is really a Lisbon trip; across the border, Seville can occasionally suit a party staying at the eastern end. For almost every booking, Faro is the answer and the only decision left is the London end.

What are the border formalities?

This is a full international flight in both directions. Portugal is inside the European Union and the Schengen area; the United Kingdom is outside both, so each leg crosses a third-country border and passport control applies. At a business-aviation terminal it is handled beside the aircraft rather than in a hall, which is why it takes minutes rather than an hour. Send us the complete passenger list with passport details well before the day and it is settled before you land.

We are travelling with golf clubs. Does that change the aircraft?

Frequently, yes, and it is the most common reason a party ends up on a larger cabin than the passenger count alone would suggest. Golf bags are long and awkward rather than heavy, so the hold fills before the seats do. Tell us how many sets are travelling when you tell us how many people are, and we will size the aeroplane to the luggage. It is much easier to do that at the quotation stage than at the aircraft steps.

Are there empty legs on this route?

This is one of the better European corridors for them, because so much of the Algarve's private traffic originates in the United Kingdom and a great many aircraft need to go home. Empty legs follow dates rather than routes, so the useful thing to tell us is which day could move and by how much. On flights we open for sharing, single seats are available instead of the whole aircraft. Current empty legs and more about jet sharing.

Can I book a last-minute private jet from Faro to London?

Usually yes, and more easily than the size of the Algarve would suggest, because the corridor is busy and the London end has one of the deepest pools of business aircraft in Europe — Luton alone recorded 26,661 business-aviation movements in 2023. The harder dates are summer weekends and the fortnight around Christmas and New Year. Call the operations desk on +357 95 119759 — it answers around the clock — and we will tell you straight away whether your timing works rather than promise and check later.

Private Jet Charter Faro to London