Charter Airline Service

Traveling by air clearly spells a lot of convenience and time savings for the passenger who could afford such luxury. But for group travelers, a more convenient means to travel by air is through charter airline service, where they need not be bounded by the appointed departure date and time officially set by an airline company.

A charter airline service (also called air taxi service) refers to a special flight that takes place outside the official or published schedule of an airline company. They are operated by charter airline companies such as Jet Aviation, Thomas Cook Airlines, Omni Air and Eurojet. Charter flights are usually availed of by group travelers like families on a holiday, company employees, members of a cruise, or a special team like medical and military personnel.

Despite operating the aircraft, charter airline service firms do not directly sell the flight tickets to passengers. Instead, passengers buy their tickets through an intermediary agent like tour operators, holiday companies or personal arrangements with unions (for employee group deals). These are the entities that “reserve” the charter aircraft from the charter airline company by buying the seats in blocks, or the entire aircraft occupancy allotment. They are also the ones that dictate the route or destination of the aircraft, and the frequencies of the charter flight.

To attain the 100% seat occupancy required for a charter airline service to fly, some tour operators purchase the seat occupancy in consortium with other holiday companies. Some charter airline service companies leave a minimal number of seats for non-party travelers while some flights are strictly exclusive for groups.

There are so-called "regularly scheduled" charter flights that depart at a fixed interval, much like regular commercial flights. These kinds of charter flights service airports adjacent to popular tourist destinations like resorts, beaches and ski sites. They also include routes in small or remote areas where there is less or no scheduled flights. The charter airline companies pay the appropriate landing fees to these airports.