What Actually Drives the Cost of Detailing an Aircraft
We do not publish a price list, and it is not evasion. Two aircraft of the same model can be a day apart in labour depending on what the last few years did to them.
Size sets the floor, condition sets the number
Surface area gives you a baseline — a light jet is less airframe than a heavy. But surface area is the easy part of the estimate and it is rarely what makes two quotes differ.
What actually moves the number is how many passes the paint needs, and that is a function of condition, not size.
The variables that matter
Condition on arrival
An aircraft washed every three weeks and one that has sat on a coastal ramp for eight months are not the same job. The second needs a decontamination stage before anything else, and the belly alone can absorb hours.
Correction stages
- One stage — light polish, restores gloss on sound paint
- Two stage — cut then refine, for oxidation and swirl
- Three stage — heavy cut, refine, finish, for neglected or eroded paint
Each stage is a full pass over the entire airframe. Going from two stages to three is not a small increment.
Access and location
Hangar access with power is straightforward. An open ramp in August, working around a departure, is not. Travel outside our core South Florida area factors in too.
Turnaround
Standard scheduling is the efficient case. AOG work — needing an aircraft right for tomorrow morning — means crew and hours that are not available at standard rates.
Interior scope
Interior varies more than exterior. A cabin refresh and a full restoration with leather rehydration, veneer refinishing and carpet extraction are different orders of work.
The honest version: we can quote a wash sight unseen. We cannot quote a correction without knowing what the paint has been through.
How to get an accurate number quickly
- Aircraft type and rough age of the paint
- Home base and where it will be when we work on it
- What you are after — wash, correction, coating, interior, or the lot
- When you need it
- Photographs if you have them — belly and aft fuselage tell us the most
That is enough for a firm figure in writing, usually within four hours. Everything on the booking form is there because it changes the quote.
What you are actually buying
The thing worth understanding is that detailing is preventative maintenance with a cosmetic side effect. Paint is a corrosion barrier. Keeping it intact defers a repaint, and a repaint on a mid-size jet is a very large number plus weeks out of service.
Set against that, a maintenance schedule is inexpensive — and it is the difference between an aircraft that shows well at resale and one that does not.
Want a firm number for your tail?
Licensed and insured. Same day across South Florida, Orlando and Tampa. Most quotes out within four hours.