Charter Fly

Charter services are similar to charter busses as they are often reserved by groups for their use. Many charter carriers in fact basically operate a fixed timetable, with a certain number of weekly departures to popular holiday locations. In this case, too, certain travellers do not reserve a ticket for the trip but are instead resold in large quantities to a tourism operator or travel agent.

When you want to charter a special trip for your organisation - e.g. to take your whole business on a corporate holiday - you can use a charter trip to make a booking exactly when your group needs it. Rather than offering your group members different air travel choices and then wait for the group to find themselves again, you can fly whenever it's most favorable for your travel route, whether it's three in the afternoons or three in the mornings.

Charters can take you to smaller local aerodromes that are taboo or difficult to find for large airline companies. If not, you will need to take a coach to get your group from San Francisco or Oakland airport more than an hours away. Napa County Airport does not allow airline travel on business trips.

Charters are particularly useful to reach islands with restricted business air services where a passenger would need more than one connection. Gatwick in London offers regular direct services in late November to Fuerteventura and Mallorca in Spain and Paphos in Cyprus. Have you ever thought of taking a charter aircraft - taxiing directly to the aircraft in your own vehicle or cab, bypassing the ever-swelling safety lanes and climbing in peace and quiet - you can share the same adventure on a charter aircraft.

Charter air services belong to the general air transport sector, a differentiation that relieves passenger from some of the rules for business air services. On-board equipment levels on charter depend on aircraft types; most have board and lodging facilities, but not all have a bathroom or pressurised cabin.

FAA Consumers Guide to Chartering an Aircraft describes the available aircraft models and gives flight recommendations.