FAA Proposes $336K Penalty against Planet Nine Air

The FAA has proposed a $336,000 civil penalty against Planet Nine Private Air of Van Nuys, California, alleging that the operator mislabeled charter flights as Part 91/general aviation on international flight plans and conducted flights in a “careless and reckless” manner.

The charter provider sent AIN a written response, calling out the Department of Transportation/FAA for granting privileges to foreign operators that, for U.S. operators, are restricted, and noting its own commitment to safety and attention to regulatory compliance. It termed the proposed penalty a “gross overreach.”

According to the FAA, Planet Nine submitted 21 inaccurate flight plans between November 2023 and August 2024 for passenger flights between the U.S. and international destinations. The FAA also claims the company did not obtain overflight or landing permits for the flights and failed to follow its own oceanic and international procedures manual.

“The FAA’s findings involve an extraordinarily small number of flights—less than 0.2% of our total flight segments during the audit period—and have zero connection to the safety of flight,” the company said. “These isolated administrative issues resulted purely from the real-world demands of ultra-long-range international operations.”

Planet Nine has 30 days from receipt of the FAA’s enforcement letter to respond. The penalty is proposed and not yet final. The FAA did not specify in its enforcement notice what motivated the alleged misclassification of the flights.