Private Jet Charter Guide – Part II

 Private Jet Charter Guide – Part II

Welcome to part II of our private jet charter guide, previously we discussed the basics of private jet charter here. Before continuing any further we must understand the concept of aircraft availability. Availability is what determines the aircraft chosen for your trip. We verify availability before issuing any hard quotes, that way our customers know which aircraft are available, and in the case of a booked aircraft, which aircraft to default on to, as well as the previously noted backup aircraft.

Back to our example trip noted in part I of this guide; John has confirmed that he wants the Challenger 601 for his trip, as per
Aircharter’s standard operating procedure, two other similar aircraft are also located and cross checked with availability in case of unavailability of the first aircraft choice. John doesn’t need to worry about any of this, as far as John knows, everything is all set for his trip. Within the following day, Aircharter delivers John’s itinerary, with full information such as takeoff and landing times, which FBO (fixed base operators) will be used, and direct contact information for both pilots. Included in the itinerary are catering details that John had specifically asked for. At this point, the trip is fully planned and ready to take off as soon as john is ready to fly. The aircraft of choice, the Challenger 601 would be repositioned to JFK airport awaiting John and his other passengers, at which point, he would board his aircraft and fly to Los Angeles. Now considering the fact that John wished to fly a round trip instead of a one way trip changes a great deal of options. If John were to request a one way trip from New York to Los Angeles, the best option would be an empty leg. An empty leg is the name given to an empty private aircraft flight. Normally, if John was to fly from New York to Los Angeles, he would be paying for the total time of the trip to Los Angeles as well as the return flight. Even though the aircraft would be flying back to its home base in New York, it would be flying empty, and John would normally have to pay for both parts of the trip considering the aircraft is still burning fuel to get back to it’s home base. In a situation like this, Aircharter will locate an available empty leg, in this case, an empty leg from the New York area to the California area. Empty legs for, major destinations such as these are easy to find, and offer a price that is nearly half of a traditional flight in which John would be paying for the return of the aircraft as well.

But thankfully John plans to return the next day, for scenarios in which he would be returning a week or two weeks later would essentially be two round trips for the aircraft, as the aircraft wouldn’t sit in Los Angeles for a week. It is more cost effective to take the aircraft back to New York where it can fulfill other flights in the meantime. In a case such as that, two empty legs would have to be found, although possible, flying a double empty leg would require a bit of flexibility on departure times and dates. Only when the aircraft are available is it possible to request an empty leg. Now given enough time, our private jet charter specialists can find nearly any empty leg imaginable. But for rushed requests, it is often difficult to find an empty leg for a customer in enough time to book if the customer needs to fly in the next 72 hours.

We meet John on the other side, in Los Angeles. John’s trip lasted about 6 hours and John and his passengers arrived very comfortably, and were taken to their destination by limo service. The aircraft will be given a safety check and parked for the night as the pilots and crew get some much needed rest. At this point, the aircraft is not being used but John only pays minimal parking fees that were included in his original quote. If the aircraft were to stay an additional night or longer, then other fees would be added, as the aircraft would technically be in use by John, and John would have to pay a basic fee for having the aircraft on standby.

John’s aircraft flies back to New York the very next day and John is very content with the experience. Now that John’s example trip is completed, in the next section of our private jet charter guide we will cover all of the possible fees in detail. We will learn what a RON rate is and how much does a major airport charge for a landing fee, we will cover attendant rates and estimated costs per hour for all types of aircraft as well as explaining which fees are included in a quote, and which fees may be billed at a later time. Join us next time for part III of our private jet charter guide, in which we will be discussing all of the basic factors that make up a private jet charter trip.