Charter, jet card or fractional: what the FAA rules mean for the person in the cabin

Private aviation is sold in three main forms — an on-demand charter, a prepaid jet card, and a fractional share of an aircraft — and the marketing for all three tends to blur into the same photographs of the same leather. The regulatory reality is sharper, and it is the FAA's own pages, not the brochures, that explain what you are actually buying.

The rule: Part 135

In the FAA's words, "an air charter — also known as commuter or on-demand operations under 14 CFR part 135 — requires a higher level of pilot training and certification, maintenance procedures, and safety rules, than pilots who may take family or friends for an airplane ride." That second category is private flying under Part 91, which the FAA notes is inspected less frequently. When you pay to be flown, the law expects the operator to hold a Part 135 certificate.

Part 135 itself is layered. On-demand operations are limited to "airplanes that have a passenger seating configuration of 30 seats or less" and a payload of 7,500 pounds; commuter operations are smaller still, capped at nine seats, and "cannot be conducted in any turbo-jet aircraft." Certificates come in four scopes — single-pilot, single pilot-in-command, "135 Basic" (at most five pilots, five aircraft and three types) and "Standard Part 135," which has no preset limits but must qualify for each kind of operation it seeks. An air carrier certificate covers interstate and international flying; an operating certificate covers flights wholly within one state. A large charter provider will hold a standard certificate; a two-aircraft operator may hold a basic one. Both are legal. What is not legal is a flight for hire with no certificate at all.

The question the FAA wants you to ask

The FAA's consumer page reduces the whole subject to one question: "Am I liable for the flight (do I have operational control)?" In a legitimate charter, the operator has operational control — it chooses the crew, maintains the aircraft and answers to the FAA. The agency's list of warning signs for an illegal charter is worth quoting in full: "a lack of Federal Excise Tax charged to the consumer"; a company that provides aircraft and crew "yet attempts to transfer operational control to a consumer"; "a lack of a safety briefing or passenger briefing cards"; "any evasiveness to questions or concerns"; and coaching passengers "on what to say or do if an FAA aviation inspector meets the aircraft."

The practical instruction is equally plain: "ask to see the Operator's Air Carrier or Operating Certificate" before booking, and check the operator against the FAA's published list of Part 135 certificate holders.

Charter

An on-demand charter is the simplest arrangement: you pay for a flight, the certificate holder operates it. The complication is the broker. Many charters are sold by intermediaries who hold no certificate and operate nothing; they arrange the flight with an operator who does. That is a legitimate business, but it means the name on the invoice may not be the name on the certificate. Ask which operator will fly you, and apply the FAA's checklist to that company.