Private Charter’s Dirty Secret- Aircraft Mechanicals – Part 3

The Role of the Charter Broker

As aircraft schedules have become increasingly complex, small schedule changes create large ripple effects. Adverse weather, prolonged maintenance, Air Traffic Control issues, airport construction, passenger delays and many other factors can cause disruptions to schedules. This can ultimately result in delays and issues with aircraft availability. Long gone are the days when booking a charter was as simple as finding the aircraft based closest to your point of departure. An aircraft based in New York today, may be available for a round-trip flight out of Chicago tomorrow and then a one-way flight from Dallas to Seattle the next day.

The goal of Floating Fleet, Jet Card or Fractional private business models is to mimic the efficiency of airline schedules. Just as commercial airlines would never fly an aircraft empty, modern business jet schedules work efficiently because aircraft fly from point to point, with passengers almost always in the seats. Many of these aircraft never see their home base except perhaps to return for scheduled maintenance. Fresh crews are often dispatched, sent on commercial airline flights to “catch up” with their aircraft on the road in order to rotate out with the currently assigned crews.

For the average flyer, it’s very difficult to track all these moving pieces and to find the best aircraft for their flight requirements. There are over 1500 charter aircraft in the United States, all with their own unique owners, schedules and contractual requirements.  Customers can no longer manage their own bookings as they were able to do back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Competent brokers will take into consideration what’s most important to a client. Does the client primarily value schedule flexibility? Or perhaps the client considers aircraft type as paramount importance? Is price their primary motivating factor? Brokers analyze what is most important to their client and make informed decisions based on industry knowledge and experience. Good brokers constantly track all these moving pieces, they understand the nuances in the market and not only use their expertise to drive value for the client, but also to foresee and prevent service disruptions by minimizing the schedule risks involved with each unique flight.