Arkansas Has 340 Based Business Jets and Turboprops, Led by Citations and Clinton National Airport
Why It MattersA fleet this concentrated in one manufacturer family, two hub airports and a few corporate flight departments shows how a regional market's maintenance demand and resale liquidity hinge on very few operators.
What happened
A Holstein Aviation breakdown of Arkansas's in-state business aviation fleet counts 340 turboprops and business jets based in the state. The average manufacture year is 2004, with a median of about 2005. Ninety-five aircraft (28 percent) were built in 2015 or later, 52 (15 percent) in 2020 or newer, and 63 (19 percent) before 1990. The fleet ranges from 1969 airframes to 2025 deliveries.
Ownership is overwhelmingly direct: 332 aircraft (97.6 percent) are wholly owned and 8 (2.4 percent) are in shared ownership. The aircraft are based at 42 airports. Bill and Hillary Clinton National/Adams Field in Little Rock holds about 22 percent of the state's business aircraft, and Little Rock and Jonesboro together account for nearly a third of the fleet. The Northwest Arkansas cluster of Rogers, Springdale, Drake Field, Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas Regional holds 89 aircraft, and the top ten fields hold nearly 75 percent of aircraft with a recorded base airport.
By manufacturer, Citation leads with 120 aircraft, more than double the next closest maker, followed by King Air (51), Embraer (30), Learjet (21) and Falcon (17), with Socata (14), Pilatus (13) and Gulfstream (12) close behind. Citations make up about 35 percent of the fleet, and 126 distinct models appear. The top models are the Citation Excel and King Air B200 (11 each), the Citation CJ3 and Citation Bravo (10 each), and the Learjet 45XR (9).
Thirty of the 340 aircraft, about 9 percent, are listed for sale: ten with a published asking price, nineteen listed as "inquire," and one a share offering. Citations account for 10 listings, followed by four Learjets, three King Airs and three Premiers. Published asking prices run from $725k for a 1978 King Air E90 to $4,000k for a 2009 Avanti II. Clinton National has the most listings (9), followed by Rogers (4).
About 280 distinct operators appear across the fleet. Walmart, Inc. operates 11 aircraft, followed by Flight Group, LLC (5), and Physicians Air Transport, LLC, Tyson Foods, Inc. and AirResource Group (4 each). By usage, 304 aircraft (89 percent) fly business missions, 14 (4 percent) are in charter service and 9 (3 percent) are dealer inventory. Airframes with recorded flight-hour data average about 4,690 total hours, with a median of 4,030.
Industry impact & what to watch
A state fleet like this is a useful template for how a regional business aviation market is structured. Demand sits mostly in owner-flown and corporate flight-department aircraft, so support needs follow whichever type families dominate. With Citations at about 35 percent of the fleet, parts, avionics and engine work for that one lineage drive a large share of local maintenance activity.
Geographic concentration matters as much as type concentration. When roughly three-quarters of aircraft with a recorded base sit at ten fields, and Little Rock plus the Northwest Arkansas cluster hold a large portion of them, hangar space, fuel throughput and technician availability at a handful of airports set the capacity of the whole market. The same logic applies to operators: a small number of corporate departments account for a visible block of aircraft, so their fleet decisions move local demand more than hundreds of single-aircraft owners do.
The age profile and the for-sale count point to where activity tends to come from. A median build year near 2005 alongside 63 pre-1990 airframes keeps a steady flow of mid-life aircraft changing hands, and the 30 listings, with published prices spanning $725k to $4,000k, show how wide that resale band is. The next signal worth tracking is whether the 19 "inquire" listings convert into disclosed prices or sales, since that would reveal where actual transaction values settle.
