Resources on Aircraft Charter

Aircraft Charter

The term Air Charter is a catch all phrase that refers to the renting of an entire aircraft vs. individual aircraft seats. While the Airlines specialize in selling transportation by the seat, air charter companies focus on small groups for specialized itineraries, urgent / time sensitive freight or cargo, air ambulance and any other form of ad hoc air transportation.

Generally speaking, air charter is also known as air taxi, executive charter, jet charter and more broadly as private aviation. In the United States air charter / air taxi is governed by Part 135 of the FARs (the Federal Aviation Regulations), unlike the larger scheduled airlines, which are governed by more stringent standards of Part 121 of the FARs, which are regulations designed for scheduled air carriers.

It is believed that over 70% of the private air charter in the world is within the United States, the largest market for private aviation globally.
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Beginning in the late 1990's the air charter / air taxi interest moved into main stream media and discussion with the growth and advent of several key factors:

• Very Light Jets or VLJs popularized the concept of small affordable jets that would bring the capital carrying cost of aircraft down enough so that many more could be sold and operated. Eclipse Aviation is perhaps one of the most well known new aircraft brands, although other companies including Adam Aircraft, Cessna, Honda, and Embraer have designed or built VLJ's of their own. While the air taxi debate is concerned with whether these aircraft will actually contribute to change, the mere discussion, media coverage and excitement over new technology is bringing more and more attention to the concept of ad hoc air transportation.
• Internet Communication: Because air charter was never part of the major GDS or travel distribution systems, it could not reach wider audiences. With the advent of the Internet, distribution of information regarding the availability of aircraft, placement, pricing etc., became more available to the increased broker and buyer community.
• Problems: Growing dissatisfaction with the scheduled airlines over security and congestion related delays. While not all airline passengers could afford alternatives, the upper echelons of airline passengers sought was to stop flying commercially or exploring corporate aviation, fractional or air charter.
• Alternatives: Air Charter and its cousin Fractional Ownership popularized the notion of private aircraft use and ownership. Fractional aircraft ownerships growth led to the advent of a distinct set of regulations in the United States designed specifically to regulate fractionally owned aircraft companies. These new regulations are spelled out clearly in Part 91 Subpart K and bring fractional aircraft operations into line with existing air charter regulations, making fractional ownership into simply another flavor of ad hoc air transportation.

Aircraft manufacturers, such as Eclipse Aviation and Adam Aircraft Industries, and others maintain that the construction of cheaper, smaller and faster jets will enable inexpensive point-to-point private aviation, creating a new industry. Others maintain that these new aircraft will lower the barriers to ownership enabling more wealthy individuals to own jet aircraft, but will not result in their wide adoption for commercial applications. Critics argue that basic economics, demographics, industry inertia and operational constraints will automatically limit the birth of an air taxi industry.

Excerpt of "Air charter." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 16 Oct 2006, 01:35 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 25 Oct 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Air_charter&oldid=81701852

More airports available with chartered aircraft

With chartered aircraft you have access to many more airports than with scheduled flights, often much closer to your destination. For example in Europe, there are over 2000 airports, but only 10% are reached by scheduled airlines. Private charter reaches all of them.