Story ID: 
NATA Releases Public Charter Resource
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: NATA has seen rapid growth in the public charter sector and developed an educational white paper to provide guidance on such operations.
Word Count: 237
Seeing a jump in the number of authorized public charters and proposed flights, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has developed a resource to help operators better understand the associated privileges and limitations.
NATA said its review of the Department of Transportation’s lists surrounding Part 380 and scheduled Part 135 has shown growth in the public charter sector. This trend provides opportunities in certain markets but in some cases has also raised concerns of the local community, the association said. In response, it created a Public Charter Operations white paper to help provide clarity on operating authority requirements and guidelines.
“The benefits of travel in smaller, private aircraft typical to Part 135 charter operations have become more apparent in recent years,” NATA said. “However, full-aircraft private jet charter remains prohibitively expensive for many potential customers, particularly when they will not fill all available passenger seats. To offer a lower cost of entry, there have been efforts over the last two decades to improve the ability to aggregate multiple individuals or groups on a single aircraft.”
The result has been an edging up of public charters, a near tripling of participating carriers, and skyrocketing of proposed flights (from 8,420 in 2011 to about 211,000 in 2021). Areas of need addressed in the paper include surveillance, community outreach, data, coordination between the agencies and operators, and operator safety.