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What is a Charter Flight?
Scheduled flights leave at regular intervals with tickets being sold up to the day of the flight to the general public, whereas a charter flight is normally booked in advance as part of a private travel arrangement.
Charter flights are normally filled by tour companies, who sell the flights as part of a holiday package including accommodation, catering and activities. The holiday company book the whole plane and then sell the seats in their travel agents or on their websites. Sometimes large companies or organisations will organise charter flights instead of regular flights, as it can mean a reduced expenditure.
In the past charter flights have only been available to tour companies, but recently airlines have opened up charter flights to the general public. The savings which can be made can be sizeable, although to optimise the discount occupancy must be maximised.
When buying charter flights, you can get some great deals by buying independently, or booking at the last minute. This type of strategy for reducing the expenditure does requite some flexibility in the schedule, but can mean some staggering savings.
Scheduled airlines can charge a large price for tickets bought at the last minute, because these last minute tickets will always end up being purchased. Charter flights however, are faced with the opposite circumstance. Charter flights tend to be booked well in advance, so as the flight approaches any empty seats are likely to be sold at reduced rate, as the tour operator scrambles to maximise their profits, or minimise their losses.
Charter flights normally have much harsher rules on ticketing than scheduled departures, often denying people refunds on cancelled tickets. Airlines mitigate this by permitting transfer of tickets to another person for a small fee.
Because charter airlines tend to be reasonably small, with relatively small profit margins, they tend to be more vulnerable in terms of financial stability when compared to major airlines. In recent years there has been several examples of airlines going out of business leaving customers with some useless tickets, sometimes even failing to inform their customers of their bankrupt and defunct status. Added to this, tour operators will sometimes cancel flights at the last minute because they have failed to sell a sufficient number of seats to make the flight financially viable.
Though there are pitfalls to charter flights compared to traditional scheduled departures, but the savings can make all this worth it. Cost, flexibility and reliability are all considerations when you're booking a flight.
About the Author John McE writes articles on a number of subjects including jets and aviation. For the hire of private jets, commercial jets and freight aircraft try Air Partner, a world-class company which provides every type of aircraft, for every conceivable mission, in every part of the planet.
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