Illegal Charter Battle Grows as Industry Sees Progress

While the air charter community is seeing some progress in the decades-long battle to fight illegal charter, much more needs to be done, FAA and industry executives stressed during the National Air Transportation Association’s (NATA) Air Charter Forum on Thursday morning.

NATA Air Charter Committee co-chair Andrew Schmertz, who is CEO of Hopscotch Air, and Barry Lambert, executive v-p of Southern Sky Aviation, stressed that the issue remains a top priority for the community.

“That’s been one of my biggest hot buttons,” Lambert said, adding that a significant amount of his time on the committee has involved working on the illegal charter issue.

“I think we’ve made significant progress. We’re not all the way there yet, but we’ve had excellent conversations with the FAA, which is a key partner in stopping illegal charter and identifying what a legal charter is. It’s not always the bad person out there,” Schmertz said.

The charter community is increasingly reporting illegal activity, enabling the FAA to follow up on this activity, Michael Bush with the FAA Safe Air Charter Team told attendees. But at the same time, new entrants and novice passengers underscore the need to continue to expand on efforts to educate both passengers and operators about the issue, he and Joe Kluk, also with the FAA Safe Air Charter Team, told attendees.

This includes making sure industry continues to step up reports of potential illegal activity to the FAA’s illegal charter hotline, they said. Bush emphasized that the FAA does follow up on reports and cited as an example the release that went out last week about a proposed $336,000 fine against Planet Nine Private Air for alleged international flight violations. This was the result of a hotline complaint and the culmination of about a year of investigation, Bush said.

Hotline reports have grown in recent years, with 231 in the 2018/2019 time frame, growing to 460 between 2020 and 2022, and then to 485 from 2023 to 2025. Bush noted that as members in the charter community become increasingly more educated about the subject, they are encouraged to report.

He advised that the more information provided to the hotline, the better for the investigation. Evidence of illegal activity must satisfy four areas: holding out (such as advertising an unauthorized activity); transport of persons or property; place-to-place transport; and receipt of compensation for the activity.

The FAA Safe Air Charter team has broadened its reach both internationally and in the U.S. to explain the dangers of illegal charter. In addition to online webinars, it has met with foreign aviation authorities, held university/college briefings, made presentations before the airport community, steered digital media releases, worked with associations on press releases, engaged with news articles, and hosted illegal charter courses both online and in person.

Just this year, the team plans to present before the Air Charter Association and expand university briefings, and has met or will meet with the aviation authorities of France, Mexico, and the Philippines, among other activities.

While models have changed—Paul Lange of the law offices of Paul A. Lange noted that there are always MBA students who believe they can “build a better mousetrap”—illegal charter still stems from the categories of the clueless, careless, and criminal. Most are clueless, he said, but many are careless, while a small but important subset are criminal.

Bush discussed the urgency of the issue, pointing to a 2008 crash of a Cessna Citation 500 as an example. The aircraft was owned by a doctor who hired a management company that, in turn, leased it out to a Part 135 certificate holder. “The only problem was that the operator was only certified for helicopters,” Bush noted. “This is just to show that there are catastrophic consequences that are directly related to illegal charter operations.”

He cited dangers surrounding the lack of pilot training and maintenance, as well as oversight. Illegal charters also present a competitive advantage because they don’t have to pay the costs associated with that oversight and, in some cases, skirt federal excise taxes, he said.