The Air Charter Association is a trade body with over 250 members around the world, ranging from business jet operators to airports, charter brokers to cargo airlines and from supporting industries such as fuel providers to insurance brokers, banks and the majority of the leading aviation law firms. It seeks to protect and bring to the world's attention the importance of air charter, and has focussed heavily on representing the interests of professional organisations and individuals working in the air charter industry with regulatory authorities and governments around the globe. Formerly known as BACA, the recent change of name gives the association a much clearer identity, and will allow the council and management team to move forward on the key issues facing the industry across the globe.

Traditionally the association has been known fairly widely for its networking opportunities, but behind the scenes it is an active lobbying organisation, whether that's on issues affecting members and the travelling public, such as illegal charter, or educating government officials on the benefits of air charter in general, or representing members' interests in areas such as tax, future aviation strategy and trying to find ways to encourage the next generation into the industry.

It is currently campaigning for government reviews of illegal flights. Having been heavily involved in educating the public and governments about the risks of illegal charters, they still occur daily around the world, carrying increased risk to the travelling public, damaging the reputation of a very professional legal industry and impacting businesses and careers.

In order to be legally hired, an aircraft must be operating on a charter licence (an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) or Part 135 Certificate), and flown by commercial pilots.
Illegal charters are invariably managed solely by one or two pilots with no organisational depth behind them, no oversight, reduced training and no independent safety checking of how they are operating. The best analogy is a licensed taxi-cab versus an unlicensed minicab, only without the ability to stop on the side of the road when you’re not comfortable.

The incidence of illegal charters is higher than most would believe and The Air Charter Association, and the industry in general, receives reports regularly of such flights taking place and works closely with aviation authorities around the world to seek to stop them, in order to protect the travelling public.

The reason The Air Charter Association has such strong views on illegal charters is very simple – they do not have the layers of safety, security, risk and compliance management that legal charter operators put into their flights. Put simply, they are a danger to life and the likelihood of an accident is far greater than when flying on a properly licensed charter aircraft.

The recent crash involving Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala, where two men lost their lives, brought the topic of illegal flying to the public’s attention. Questions were raised as the Piper Malibu aircraft was not operated on an AOC and the footballer’s family, Cardiff City Football Club and the media have urged the authorities and governing bodies to investigate, with our full support.

We are an industry that sets out to protect the travelling public as best we can, and we firmly believe that illegal charters increase the risk to passengers on those flights, and tarnish the reputation of the professionals in our industry who operate within the law.

When a licensed air carrier’s flight takes off, every detail of the flight has been scrutinised by layers of oversight, ensuring that the pilots are appropriately licensed, fully trained in normal and emergency procedures every six months, through auditing the services of third parties such as fuel companies and handling agents, to making sure that the flight’s operation is carried out with the least risk possible. This takes away all the commercial pressures from the flight and ground crew, so that they are solely focussed on the journey itself. In an illegal charter, invariably, all that work is carried out by the pilot, with nobody checking their work.

Day leasing is a term used when an aircraft owner ‘leases’ their aircraft to another person for a short period to undertake a flight. During the period of the lease, the lessor becomes the operator of the aircraft and all responsibilities and accountabilities of being in control of that aircraft pass across to the charterer.

When leasing an aircraft, the lessor must separately hire an independent commercial pilot to operate the aircraft. Whilst technically legal, the Association is concerned that the end-users of such arrangements may not be fully aware of the differences between flying on an aircraft which is commercially registered and operated by a licensed air carrier, and flying on one which is leased for a day, both in terms of safety and in terms of accountability.

When an aircraft is legally chartered, the responsibilities remain with the aircraft operator; they undertake all the planning, safety, compliance and operational requirements.

When leased, the aircraft operator is actually the person leasing that aircraft and they are now ultimately responsible for planning, safety, compliance and operations. Whilst these tasks can be delegated to the pilot they have hired, the accountability in the event of an accident or incident remains with the lessor. This could give rise to litigation and criminal charges in the event that any shortcuts or illegalities have occurred.

This really is where the Association’s concerns lie. As an industry it seeks to protect the travelling public and minimise the, already very small, risks of flying. It believes that unless the lessor is fully aware of the different level of oversight that a day leased aircraft operates under and the full responsibility and accountability that being a lessor involves, then it is unfair of aircraft owners to put them into that position. “We would simply recommend using a straightforward, competitive licensed air carrier and aircraft for all flight requirements,” says the Association.