What it costs
How Much Does Aircraft Detailing Cost?
Aircraft detailing is quoted rather than priced, and the same nominal job on two identical airframes can differ several times over. Condition, access, scope and deadline decide it, roughly in that order. A neglected light jet cabin takes longer than a large-cabin aircraft kept on a program. So rather than a figure that would be wrong for your aircraft the moment it was written, this page sets out what the number is actually made of, which conditions add hours to yours, and how to read any quote you are handed.
Why there is no number on this page
We quote against a written scope, after seeing the aircraft or a condition report and photographs of it. A published figure is incompatible with that. Any number set down in advance describes either the easiest version of the job, in which case every owner gets a revision after the walk-round, or the worst version, in which case it frightens off the owner whose aircraft is in good order. A published figure also becomes a ceiling, and scope is where the result comes from. There is a plainer point behind both. A vendor who quotes before seeing the aircraft is guessing, and you find out what they guessed when the invoice arrives.
What actually moves the number
Surface area and reach, not the model name
Size drives the exterior more than anything else, and it does not track the marketing class neatly. Reach is the part owners forget. Past a certain tail height the vertical stabiliser and upper fuselage cannot be worked from a standard stand, so the job needs a lift or a tall platform: hire, positioning, repositioning, and a slower pace on every pass. Two aircraft in the same bracket can differ substantially once you measure the surface a crew has to cover and what it takes to get to all of it.
Condition, which usually outweighs size
This is the driver owners underestimate most. Carpet that has never been extracted. Leather a previous vendor over-conditioned into a tacky film. Exhaust deposits left long enough to track and etch along the nacelles and aft fuselage. None of that has anything to do with dimensions and all of it adds hours. A neglected turboprop cabin can take longer than a large-cabin jet that has been kept on a program, which is why two owners with the same aircraft type get different scopes.
Hangar or open ramp
Hangar work is faster and the finish is better, because wind and sun are what cause streaking and spotting: product flashes off before it can be removed properly. On an open ramp through a Georgia summer the working window shrinks to early morning and evening, panels have to be worked in smaller sections, and the job stretches. At a field like PDK, the second busiest general aviation airport in the United States, hangar space is not always there for the asking. Whether you can supply it is one of the largest single swings in a quote.
Staging, services and where the aircraft sits
A crew needs somewhere to put stands, extraction gear, towel stock and chemistry, and a route to move it that does not cross an active taxi lane. Water and a power drop matter as much. Where there is no water the exterior goes rinse-less, which means more product, more towels and a slower method. Distance counts too: we schedule work out to 269 miles, and a field that far out is a different day's logistics from PDK or RYY. None of this is exotic. It simply has to be known before anyone commits to a departure time.
The deadline, and what compressing it costs
A tight window does not remove work. It adds crew, because the only way to finish the same hours sooner is to run more people at once, and past a certain density people start working around each other rather than in parallel. Overnight turns, weekend recalls and AOG dispatch carry a real premium, because someone is coming in outside their scheduled shift and another job is being moved to let it happen. That premium belongs on the quote before the work starts, never on the invoice afterwards.
Cleaning, correction or protection
Three disciplines, and they scale differently. Cleaning removes what is sitting on the surface. Correction is machine work that takes a little finish away each time, and an airframe's paint has only so much to give across its life, which is why it is specialist time under supervision rather than hours on a clock. Protection is mostly preparation. The coating itself is the last and shortest step, and a coating laid over uncorrected paint locks the defects in underneath it.
Brightwork is its own job
Polished leading edges, nacelles and exhaust stacks are a multi-stage discipline with their own products and their own labour, and on most jets they carry a large share of the visible result. Brightwork is almost never inside a wash quote. If one aircraft comes back sharp and another comes back merely clean, that difference alone can account for the gap between two quotes you were told were for the same thing.
What the previous vendor left behind
Some of the longest jobs we take on begin with undoing someone else's work. Silicone dressings that have to be stripped from sidewalls before anything will bond. Polish residue baked into seams and fastener heads. A coating applied over swirled paint, which now has to come off before the paint can be corrected. Remediation is slower than doing it properly the first time, and we scope it as its own line rather than burying it inside the rest.
What the work actually consists of
At this tier a full interior and exterior is measured in crew-days, and it runs in sequence. Condition assessment and photographs first. Static ports, probes and vents masked. Then exterior: belly and gear degreased, airframe washed, exhaust tracking treated, brightwork brought up, protection last. Interior runs alongside or after, dry soil out before any moisture goes in, each material on its own chemistry, because leather, Alcantara, veneer lacquer, stone, plated metal and acrylic are six different problems. Then carpet extraction, seat tracks, rails, galley, lav and cabin glass. A named crew lead owns the aircraft from walk-round to handover. You get a written scope with exclusions stated, a condition report with before and after images, and a COI to your FBO or flight department on request.
Questions to put to any vendor
Including us. If a vendor cannot answer these plainly, that tells you more than the number at the bottom of their quote.
- What exactly is excluded? Exclusions are where two quotes stop being comparable. Belly, gear, wheel wells, cockpit, lav and brightwork are the usual omissions, and each of them is real work. A quote that covers half the aircraft is not cheaper. It is smaller.
- Does this assume hangar access, water and power, and what changes if I cannot supply them? Most quotes quietly assume all three. If the aircraft will sit on an open ramp with no water, the method changes and so does the time. Better to establish that now than on the morning of the job.
- Who is actually on the stand, and is the same crew lead there start to finish? This is skilled work under supervision. A named lead who owns the walk-round, the method and the handover is the difference between a consistent result and whoever happened to be free that week.
- Can you send a certificate of insurance naming my FBO or management company at their required limits? Aviation-specific cover at limits an FBO will accept is not the same thing as general liability. If a stand touches a winglet, this question decides who carries it. A vendor who has to go away and think about it has already answered you.
- What happens if the condition is worse than described when you arrive? There are two honest answers: a variation agreed in writing before any extra work starts, or the vendor absorbs it. Silence here tends to mean a surprise on the invoice.
- What is the rush or after-hours premium, and will you put it in writing before I commit? Compressed windows cost more and that is legitimate. A premium nobody quoted, appearing after the fact, is not. Ask for it up front and it stops being a dispute later.
- How do you handle wash-water runoff at my specific field? Runoff handling is a compliance matter and it varies by airport and by ramp. A vendor who only knows one method will eventually tell you the job cannot be done, when the real answer was a different method.
Questions we get
- Why will nobody give me a price over the phone?
- Because the inputs are not available over the phone. Condition, access, staging and deadline decide the hours, and none of them can be read off a model name. Send photographs and a tail number and you can have a real figure the same day, quoted against a written scope.
- How often should an aircraft be detailed?
- Exterior washing follows utilisation and where the aircraft sits. Parked outside and unprotected through a Georgia summer needs far more attention than a hangared airframe. Interiors are usually reset between trips and detailed properly a few times a year. A coated exterior stretches every interval considerably.
- Is detailing worth it on an older aircraft?
- Often more so. Restoring leather and correcting exhaust etching early keeps you out of reupholstery and respray, which are a different order of intervention entirely. A finish left to grip deposits holds the next round more readily every year. Presentation also decides how quickly a buyer believes the logbooks.
- Is a ceramic coating worth doing?
- It changes what routine care looks like. Washing gets quicker and gentler, exhaust deposits have less to hold onto, and the paint sees fewer aggressive interventions over its life. The caveat is preparation. A coating is only as good as the paint under it, so correction comes first, and correction is the larger part of the work.
- Can you work around a maintenance visit or a fuel stop?
- Yes, and it is usually the best use of a window you already have. Work that fits into time the aircraft is already down avoids a rush premium entirely. Detail after maintenance rather than before, or shop dust, fingerprints and adhesive residue end up in every photograph.
- Do you scope fleet or recurring work differently?
- Yes. Multi-tail and recurring work is scoped as a program rather than as separate callouts. A known aircraft on a known interval never accumulates the neglect that makes a one-off visit long, so each visit is a smaller scope. The standard does not move. The work in front of it does.
Send us the tail number, the airport, the aircraft type and your deadline. Photographs help most: cabin, belly, leading edges, and anything that already worries you. PDK, RYY, FTY, LZU or any Georgia field. From that you get a written scope with exclusions stated plainly and a real figure. If the window is too tight to do the work properly, we will tell you before you commit.
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