Cessna Citation Sovereign

The Cessna Citation Sovereign was designed to provide overall excellent performance while allowing exceptional comfort for passengers.

It was first introduced as a high-performance jet to plug the gap between the Excel/XLS and Citation X, but its claim to fame is that it can take-off and land at short distances thanks to a moderately swept high-aspect-ratio wing.

As of August 2018, 58% of the Citation Sovereign aircraft were purchased pre-owned by their current owners, the other 42% new. 3.7% are for sale with half of those (54%) under an exclusive broker agreement.

When for sale, the average time on the market is 344 days.

The Cessna Citation Sovereign was first unveiled in 1998 at the NBAA Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada and the first flight took place in February 2002.

FAA certification was awarded in June 2004 and customer deliveries began later that same year.

Production of the Citation Sovereign ended in 2013 as the Sovereign+ began deliveries.

A total of 350 Citation Sovereign business jets were built, 1 is retired, 1 is at the manufacturer.

The Citation Sovereign is usually configured to hold eight to twelve passengers, offering comfortable 180-degree swivel seats.

The cabin of this private business jet measures 25.3 feet long, reaches 5.7 feet in height and stretches 5.5 feet wide.

The Citation Sovereign features an impressive 135 cubic feet of baggage space capable of accommodating about 1,000 pounds of luggage.

Additional storage is included in the cabin in the form of a closet.

The Citation Sovereign comes standard with highly advanced digital avionics. Many of the start up functions are automatic.

In the event of a stall, pilots have testified that the Citation Sovereign could recover without pilot intervention due to the level of sophistication of the stall control technology integrated into the avionics and flight systems.

When selecting an avionics suite for the Citation Sovereign, the Cessna Corporation chose the Garmin 5000 for its sophistication and performance.

Four digital touchscreen controllers and triple multi-pane widescreen displays are utilized in the package.

Situational awareness is further enhanced through Garmin’s Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT), which depicts a three-dimensional rendering of terrain, traffic, obstacles, and the runway environment, displaying these images on the primary flight displays.

Included in this highly advanced avionics package are Dual Flight Director, Dual integrated FMS that support RNP, LPV, TOLD, and performance data, dual channel fail passive Autopilot System with full integration to FMS and autothrottles, electronic documents such as manuals, and checklists.

Charts link directly to the FMS and are displayed on the multi-function displays, advanced audio capabilities, solid-state weather radar with ground clutter suppression and turbulence detection capabilities, active and passive traffic surveillance functionality through the utilization of TCAS II and ACAS II technologies, and Garmin ADS-B target correlation and tracking.

With this avionics suite, the Citation Sovereign is compliant with FANS 1/A, CPDLC, and ADS-B requirements.

The cost to charter this jet starts at around $4,500 an hour.

Hourly charter rates do not include all taxes, fuel, and other fees. Charter costs will vary based on year of make/model, schedule, routing, passenger & baggage totals, and other factors.