Illinois’s business aviation market looks nothing like a single-airport story — it’s a Chicago-anchored market with real depth across the rest of the state. Based on the current in-state fleet, 463 business jets and turboprops call Illinois home, spread across a wide mix of large-cabin jets, light jets, turboprops, and owner-flown aircraft, with the Chicago metro area — not one single field — driving most of the activity.

Here’s a look at the Illinois business aviation market by the numbers. Every aircraft referenced below is a business jet or turboprop; the dataset does not include piston aircraft, helicopters, or airliners.

A SEASONED FLEET, STILL TURNING OVER

The average manufacture year across the 463 in-operation aircraft is 2006, with a median of 2008, and 31 percent of the fleet (142 aircraft) was built in 2015 or later. Fifteen percent (71 aircraft) date back before 1990. That’s a nearly identical age profile to other established Midwest and Sun Belt markets — a fleet with plenty of history in it, but one that’s continuing to refresh into newer equipment.

Ownership structure leans overwhelmingly toward aircraft held outright:

• Wholly owned: 451 aircraft (97 percent)
• Shared ownership: 12 aircraft (3 percent)
• Fractional ownership program: effectively none As in most owner- and company-flown markets, fractional programs are all but absent in Illinois. Nearly every aircraft based in the state is owned directly by an individual or a company rather than split across a card program.

WHERE THE FLEET LIVES

Illinois’s business aircraft are based at 41 different airports, but the fleet is heavily concentrated in the Chicago suburbs:

• Chicago Executive Airport: 107 aircraft
• DuPage County Airport: 55 aircraft
• Midway Airport: 31 aircraft
• Aurora Municipal Airport: 29 aircraft
• Waukegan Regional Airport: 23 aircraft
• Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport / St. Louis Downtown Airport: 18 aircraft each Chicago Executive alone accounts for 23 percent of the statewide fleet, and adding DuPage County brings those top two fields to 35 percent of every business jet and turboprop based in Illinois. Extend that to the top six airports and you’re looking at nearly 57 percent of the entire state fleet. That’s a market with one dominant center of gravity in the northern Chicago suburbs (Chicago Executive, DuPage County, Aurora Municipal, and Waukegan Regional together), a second node at Midway closer to the city, and a long, genuine tail of activity running from the Illinois River Valley down through the St. Louis metro area on the state’s western edge.

WHAT ILLINOIS FLIES

Citation leads Illinois by a wide margin, with 79 aircraft statewide. Gulfstream is second with 66 aircraft, followed by Falcon (54), Learjet (36), and King Air (27).

By specific model, the list is topped by a mix of light jets and large-cabin equipment:

• Learjet 35A: 13
• Gulfstream G280: 13
• Caravan 208B: 10
• Gulfstream G600: 10
• Embraer Phenom 300E: 9
• Learjet 45XR: 9
• Gulfstream G500: 9
• Falcon 900: 8
• Cirrus Vision SF50 G2+: 8
• Challenger 300: 8 No single model dominates Illinois’s fleet — the top models, the Learjet 35A and Gulfstream G280, each account for under 3 percent of the total. That’s a notably different shape than a light-jet-and-turboprop market: Illinois’s top ten is a genuine mix of legacy light jets, modern light and midsize jets, and large-cabin Gulfstreams, reflecting a state with both a big-company corporate flight department presence and a strong owner-flown base underneath it.

WHAT’S ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW

Of the 463 aircraft based in Illinois, 25 are currently listed for sale or available on inquiry, or about 5.4 percent of the total fleet. Ranked by which models have the most units on the market right now:

• Caravan 208B: 3 for sale
• Gulfstream G200, Citation Bravo, Piper Meridian, and Turbo Commander 840: 2 for sale each The rest of the for-sale inventory is a long tail of single listings that spans nearly the entire market — from turboprops like the Turbo Commander 690A, to light jets like the Citation XLS+ and Eclipse 550, up to large-cabin equipment like the Falcon 2000, Global Express, and Gulfstream G280. Like Arizona, that spread suggests turnover happening across every price point rather than in one segment.

THE OPERATORS BEHIND THE FLEET

A handful of charter and management operators account for a meaningful share of the aircraft actually flying in Illinois:

• Executive Jet Management, Inc.: 9 aircraft
• Flightstar Corporation: 9 aircraft
• DuPage Aerospace Corporation: 9 aircraft
• Northern Illinois Flight Center, Inc.: 8 aircraft
• C C Industries, Inc.: 8 aircraft Just behind that group, Planemasters sits at 7 aircraft, with Jet Linx Aviation, GJP Aviation, and Sunset Aviation tied at 6 apiece. As in other markets with real depth, the drop-off from the top is gradual rather than steep — a sign of several established management options clustered around the DuPage and Chicago Executive corridor rather than one operator running away with it.

FLEET ACTIVITY

Among aircraft with recorded flight-hour data, the average airframe in Illinois’s fleet has logged just under 5,000 total flight hours. Combined with a fleet that skews slightly older on average, that points to a market of aircraft that are being put to work — consistent with a state where corporate flight departments, charter operators, and owner-pilots alike are logging real regional and transcontinental travel, not just occasional trips.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Illinois’s business aviation market is a Chicago-anchored story, but not a single-airport one. Chicago Executive and DuPage County together hold about a third of the statewide fleet, Citation and Gulfstream top the model mix, and 97 percent of the fleet is owned outright rather than through fractional programs. For owners and buyers trying to understand where they fit into this market, the data points to a clear pattern: Illinois is a deep, mixed-cabin market built around the northern Chicago suburbs, with genuine secondary activity from Midway down through central and southern Illinois, and steady turnover across every price point.

Contact Holstein Aviation to talk through where your aircraft fits into the Illinois market, whether you’re buying, selling, or reevaluating how it’s managed.