Charter airline

From ArticleWorld

A Charter airline may be defined as an airline that organizes charter flights which follow their own schedule and their own flight time. So a chartered flight is a plane leased by a person, an individual or a company, to fly to the destination of their choice. Scheduled flights, on the other hand are operated on a regular schedule by airlines such as British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, American Airlines and many more.

Why charter flights

Charter flights are organized by tour operators for customers traveling on package holidays. Sometimes, when a tour operator has not been able to fill all the seats, they will often sell the rest at discounted rates just to fill the plane. Getting a seat on such charter flights can turn out to be a real bargain. Unlike scheduled flights that run daily or weekly, charter flights have specific departure and return dates and one finds that they typically go to holiday destinations.

Charter flights generally offer individual seats but many times flights are chartered by a single group like members of a band, a company, or the army etc. Some charter flights serve as package tours, they offer accommodation and other services also in the price charged. Such flights are generally cheaper than the regular flights fares. Charter flights usually operate on those routes where regular flights do not operate and utilize the facilities of small airports where scheduled flights cannot land.

Disadvantages

1. Charter flights are apt to raise their fares even after ticket purchase to cover extra costs;
2. Cancellation charges, usually for charter flights, are much higher than the regular flights;
3. These flights do not take responsibility for delayed or late flights.
4. They have much less leg room than regular flights
5. They face innumerable delay and generally get last priority for any service (take off or landing or custom clearance).