Inside Charters: One Big Reason for Canceled Flights

You’d thought tomorrow’s charter flight was a done deal, but your broker just called to report that the reserved aircraft is suddenly unavailable. The most suitable replacement he can offer is four years older and several hundred dollars more expensive. 

Such cancellations have always been a factor in the world of charter. One big reason: is the owner-approval process, which constitutes a “widespread problem,” according to leaders of the Air Charter Association of North America (ACANA), which represents charter brokers. 

Owner-approval issues can destroy a broker-client relationship, primarily because “an aircraft pulled due to an owner schedule conflict could mean the client pays more,” says Joel Thomas, ACANA vice president and CEO of Stratos Jet Charters.

As a charter customer, you should be aware of how the owner-approval process could impact your travel plans. This is especially important now, as the chance of being affected could grow as the demand for lift escalates with the economy’s rebound and yesterday’s glut of charter aircraft becomes a shortage. 

Standard management contracts require owner approval for any charter flight booked on the owner’s aircraft. Management companies try to minimize booking conflicts by scheduling with owners the times their aircraft will be available for charter. But some owners are better about agreeing to or sticking with a schedule than others. “I can tell you from years of working with the owners of aircraft that you’re walking a fine line talking to them about charter availability,” says Brent Moldowan, ACANA president and sales manager/business aviation at Jeppesen.

Indeed, airplane owners typically want unfettered access to them, regardless of the impact their needs might have on charter flights. But the greater problem with owner approvals, say industry professionals, involves charter requests where no schedule conflicts exist; instead, an owner may simply “want to limit the amount and types of flying his or her airplanes do,” Thomas says. 

For example, owners may be reluctant to sanction short flights or multi-leg itineraries that add cycles on the engines without generating sufficient accompanying revenue. They might also nix extended stays that could deprive them of other charter opportunities. And owners of large-cabin jets would likely “turn down a trip for 12 passengers who want to fly from Los Angeles to Las Vegas,” Thomas suggests, because they might suspect the journey was more about pleasure than business and be concerned about the wear and tear on their aircraft. 

Sometimes, though the management company is holding out an aircraft as available for charter, its owner feels little pressure to provide approval in a timely manner. Alternatively, an owner may respond with a counterproposal that you might find unacceptable: yes, you can charter the G450 for a 90-minute flight, but you must pay a two- or three-hour daily minimum to make up for the owner’s opportunity cost.

Charter brokers who know what aircraft are appropriate for your itineraries should be able to provide you with additional options in situations where approval could become an issue. Thomas says that showing customers what else is available “has cut down but not eliminated owner-approval issues for our clients.”

(Owner-approval issues also affect charter customers who work directly with an operator. The lines of approval communication are presumably shorter, but an owner is no more likely to green-light a request simply because it came from the management company’s customer rather than from a charter broker.) 

ACANA wants to find ways to further minimize approval-process disruptions while enabling owners “to maintain the sense of owning a plane, not a taxi,” Thomas says. In the interim, don’t look for sophisticated scheduling software to solve the problem, because it can’t address the human factors involved, notes Moldowan. 

“Ultimately,” he adds, “the goal is to create a more transparent environment where operators are not offering [an aircraft] that is either not available at all or is likely not available until a drawn-out negotiation is completed. The simple message here is to avoid deceptive or unfair practices.”   

James Wynbrandt, a private pilot, is a regular BJT contributor who has also written for the New York Times, Forbes, and Barron’s.