![]()
Imagine this scenario. You're turning 50 and for the first time in your life you can afford to fly privately. You decide to take 10 of your friends to Las Vegas for a weekend and begin looking for a charter company. You eschew the typical brokers, or other resources, who can help source a plane because you live down the road from a general aviation airport and you know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who says he can fly you for a fraction of the cost of anyone else.Great, you think, and you book it. On board, you ask who the flight attendant is. Oh, you didn't pay for an FA so you'll need to pour yourself champagne. You overhear the co-pilot say he's thrilled he didn't need to get a type rating to sit right seat, but you don't know what that means and shrug it off. Unbeknownst to you, the hot section overhaul on the right engine was due 500 hours ago.Several hours later, you land safely in Vegas, oblivious to the fact that real gambling began when you booked the flight.The clueless, the careless, and the criminalThis is an extreme example of an illegal charter. The FAA puts illegal charter activity into three buckets. The Clueless — commercial-rated pilot who owns a Cessna 172 and offers flights to paying customers, completely unaware that they are breaking the law The Careless — sophisticated operators who should know betterThe Criminal — bad actors who intentionally violate the regulationsClueless and Careless operators can be counseled. Criminal operators face enforcement action and, possibly, jail. Whether clueless, careless, or criminal, illegal charter poses a serious safety risk and, therefore, a risk to the legitimate industry. And with people on social media calling for a relaxation of standards, saying the certification process is too onerous, the industry needs to continue to push back and explain the risks clearly. When the gamble doesn't pay offThere are a number of high-profile accidents I can highlight. One of the most infamous fatalities occurred when soccer player Emiliano Sala died in a Piper Malibu when it crashed in the English Channel in 2019. Authorities found that the pilot and owner of the aircraft did not have the proper licenses to conduct the flight. In 2005, a crash of a Challenger 600 at Teterboro Airport that injured 11 people on board and 9 on the ground, was an illegal charter scheme and the owners of the company went to prison. Why an airplane isn't always an airplaneThe flying public thinks an airplane is an airplane and all air carriers are like the commercial airlines, where the safety record is unmatched. Whether you book a seat on Frontier or on Delta, you're getting the same level of safety. But in the charter world, that unfortunately is not true. In a legitimate (or legal) charter operation, the pilots must meet certain standards and are trained and checked routinely. The aircraft must meet higher maintenance standards. The operator must have a process in place to flag potential problems before they occur. And the operator must carry the appropriate insurance. There's government oversight that may not be perfect, and sometimes may overreach, but on balance it's a key check and balance. Illegal charter competes unfairly with legitimate operators because the cost of non-compliance is a lot less than the cost of operating legally.Lapses in any one of those things creates not just a safety risk, but a reputation risk to the industry. After all, the media covers airplane accidents all the same way and may not communicate the nuances between "illegal" and "legal".Industry groups, such as the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), and the FAA have been working hard to combat illegal charter, a notoriously difficult endeavor. Enforcement actions are up and the FAA says it wants to work with companies to pull them into compliance, rather than fine them out of business. "NATA's Air Charter Committee provides an important forum for Part 135 operators to share operational expertise, identify emerging challenges, and support industry-wide education on issues such as illegal charter. Our members operate within a demanding safety and regulatory framework, and their perspective is critical to helping consumers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders better understand what safe, legal air charter requires," said NATA SVP of Communications and Association Affairs, Shannon Chambers.FAA and the industry believe that the education of consumers is one of the greatest tools in combatting illegal charter. Some red flags the FAA highlights on its "Safe Air Charter" website:Were you (the passenger) coached into giving specific answers if the FAA asks?Did you confirm the operator is legitimate? To answer this, ask for three documents: The Air Carrier Certificate, the one-page document that lists the airplanes the operator is authorized to fly, and the insurance certificate. These should be easy to obtain. Who has "operational control"? Operational control is a term of art, but basically it means who's responsible for the flight? Should certification be easier? Not so fastLet me address those on social media pushing for changes in certification standards. They argue that the FAA's regulations are too onerous, that certification is too complicated and that the one-box fits all set of rules are archaic. I get the argument that there could be more efficient ways of certifying new operators. A new, full Part 135 certificate can take years to obtain. There is a case to be made for out-sourcing certification to private entities. (Similar to how the financial industry works). That already works in aviation, where new pilot certificates are often given by designated examiners who are private citizens. Whether we agree or not, these are valid discussions to have. However, I would caution the social media "experts" to learn the full scope of the Part 135 regulations before making sweeping statements about changing standards. After all, we have the safest air transportation system in the world and that's due to standards the industry and government have worked on for decades.Both NATA and FAA have resources that anyone looking to charter should check out. The FAA's Safe Air Charter website and the NATA resources can be found at: www.faa.gov/charter and www.avoidillegalcharter.com. The scope of transportation options we have is truly remarkable. But don't hesitate to ask questions like your life depends on it. Because it often does. Andrew Schmertz is the CEO of Hopscotch Air, a FAA-certificated Part 135 air carrier, operating a fleet of Cirrus aircraft throughout the northeast. Hopscotch Air performs around fourteen hundred revenue legs a year. Andrew is also the co-Chairman of the NATA Air Charter Committee. He is a former television reporter, having worked for New York 1 and News 12 Long Island and was a business anchor for WABC and WLS-TV. He holds a law degree from Fordham University and is a private pilot, with land, sea, and instrument ratings.