Aircraft model
CESSNA 525
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The CitationJet, and the aeroplane that created the entry-level jet market. Cessna took the Citation I's fuselage, gave it a new laminar-flow wing, a T-tail and two small Williams turbofans, and produced a jet one pilot could fly and a small company could afford. It carries five passengers about 1,300 nautical miles at 380 knots and gets in and out of runways that larger jets cannot use. The 525 designation covers three aircraft in this period. The original CitationJet of 1993 to 2000 has FJ44 engines and an early EFIS panel. The CJ1 of 2000 brought the Collins Pro Line 21 flight deck and a higher gross weight, and the CJ1+ of 2005 added FADEC engine control with FJ44-1AP engines. The M2 that followed in 2013 under the same designation is a Textron-era aircraft with the Garmin G3000. A 1997 CitationJet and a 2008 CJ1+ are the same airframe with two generations of cockpit and engine control between them.
It is the cheapest way into jet ownership and the running costs are correspondingly the lowest in the class, but they are still jet costs: two Williams engines on a programme, recurrent simulator training, hangarage and a CE-525 type rating. The cabin is small — you cannot stand up in it and there is no lavatory worth the name on the earliest aircraft — and at 380 knots it is slow by jet standards, so on a 1,000-mile leg a good turboprop is not far behind. Single-pilot certification is the feature owners buy it for. Aircraft of this age need their avionics assessed carefully against current airspace requirements.
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Put CESSNA 525 side by side with up to two other models.
- CESSNA 525
What it is
| Seats | 7 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 2 |
| Engine | Williams FJ44-1A |
| Horsepower | — |
| Fuel | JetA |
| Certification basis | FAR23 |
| Production start | 1993 |
| Production end | 2013 |
| Endorsements required | multi-engine |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 380 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 1,300 nm |
| Service ceiling | 41,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 3,290 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 84 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 3,650 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 2,750 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 7 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 3,835 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 612 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 10,600 lb |
| Empty weight | 6,765 lb |
| Usable fuel | 481 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 110 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $790,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $5,900,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 3,500 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $400,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $600,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 656 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 441 |
| Median year built | 1999.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 5 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 3 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 11.341 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 9.072 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 133 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 30.163 |
| Airworthiness directives | 11 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 1 |
| Rate confidence | ok |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 441 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 441 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 441 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing multi-engine, turbo-fan, 2 engines, 7+ seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | 9.3 of 103 |
| Support | 8.9 of 104 |
| Liquidity | 5.5 of 105 |
- Accident record: class median 0 · 43 models in class.
- Severity: class median 0.
- Access: class median 9,850.
- Support: class median 197.
- Liquidity: class median 29.17.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.