From Debt Into Retirement

Charter flight has advantages that commercial flight lacks, especially in today’s climate of heightened international terrorism tensions and the delays security against those tensions requires of commercial flight. For charter carrier and customer alike, air charters can guarantee at least three things right out of the gate: efficiency, privacy, and flexibility.

Professional air charter services are used by a variety of interests. Entertainers have used charter flights for many years, and so have athletic teams. Medical operations have used charter flights to transport critically ill patients from facility to facility for many years; such a flight, in fact, was a significant part of the plot in the classic James Stewart/Carole Lombard film, Made for Each Other. Large businesses have used air charters to fly executives or deal partners safely and with little to no downtime, they cannot afford to waste. In addition, travelers often use air charters for sightseeing or special trips to certain locales away from their designated vacation spots.

Flying the airlines can be more time consuming than you might believe from looking at a flight schedule. There are numerous inconveniences or normal delays such as airport security checking, baggage check-in, hub-and-spoke routing, plane changes, and even the travel to and from the airport’s commercial terminals. Air charters remove most of those obstacles. A flyer has to worry, for the most part, about little more than parking at a charter terminal, joining up with his charter group, boarding, and flying. You control the schedule; you control the amenities; you have complete privacy for a business group, an entertainment crew, or a family on a vacation.

In the United States, air charter services use over 5,500 airports. At last known accounting, the American air charter services industry involved more than two thousand companies whose combined annual revenues were over $8 billion, with the major firms including Bombardier, FlexJet, Global Aviation Holdings, and NetJets, according to MarketResearch.com. According to Hoovers.com, domestic air passenger travel accounts for half the air charter service revenue, international air passenger travel 15 percent, domestic air freight ten percent, and international air freight five percent.

Flyers or shippers can book air charters on the Internet through a large number of services, including Sentient.com, businessjetz.com, and OneSky.com. Air chartering is a pricy proposition, however, and those booking air charter services should be very careful in reading and understanding the terms outlined in a charter contract. Aircraft-Charter-World.com has an excellent sample air charter agreement to use as a guide.