Ways to fly
- On-demand charter
- Renting a whole aircraft with crew for a trip, priced per flight hour. The aircraft is operated by a company holding an air carrier certificate.
- Jet card
- A prepaid block of flight hours, or a deposit, at a fixed hourly rate with guaranteed availability on a set amount of notice.
- Fractional ownership
- Owning a share of an aircraft in a managed fleet. You pay for the share, a monthly management fee and an hourly rate, and the program supplies crews and backup aircraft.
- Empty leg
- A flight an aircraft has to make without passengers, often sold at a discount. Timing is set by the original trip, so empty legs suit flexible travellers.
- Repositioning
- Flying an empty aircraft to where the trip starts, or back to base afterwards. Charter customers often pay for it.
- Part 91
- The US rules for private, non-commercial flying. An owner flying their own aircraft for their own purposes operates under Part 91.
- Part 135
- The US rules for commercial charter. Operators need an air carrier certificate, and pilots, maintenance and procedures meet stricter standards.
- Federal excise tax (FET)
- A 7.5% US tax on commercial air transportation, applied to charter and jet card flights, plus per-segment fees.
- Daily minimum
- The minimum number of hours a charter or jet card provider bills per day, even if you fly less.
- Aircraft management company
- A company that runs an owner's aircraft: crew, maintenance scheduling, insurance and paperwork, for a monthly fee and sometimes margins on costs.
Buying and selling
- Letter of intent (LOI)
- The first written agreement in a jet purchase: price, deposit, inspection terms and timeline.
- Escrow
- A neutral aviation escrow agent holds the deposit and purchase funds and releases them when title transfers.
- Pre-purchase inspection (pre-buy)
- An independent inspection of the aircraft and its records before purchase, usually with engine checks and a test flight. Its findings are used to negotiate.
- Logbooks and records
- The complete maintenance history of the airframe, engines and components. Missing or incomplete records reduce an aircraft's value.
- Airworthiness directive (AD)
- A mandatory safety requirement issued by the aviation authority. Compliance must be recorded.
- Service bulletin (SB)
- A manufacturer's recommendation for an inspection or modification. Some become mandatory through ADs.
- Buyer's representative
- An advisor who works only for the buyer in a purchase, as opposed to a broker representing the seller.
Owning and operating
- Fixed costs
- Costs paid whether the aircraft flies or not: crew, hangar, insurance, training, subscriptions and calendar inspections.
- Variable (hourly) costs
- Costs that rise with each flight hour: fuel, maintenance and engine reserves, and trip fees.
- Engine program
- An hourly fee paid to a program that covers engine overhauls and many repairs. Enrolment usually raises resale value.
- TBO / hours since overhaul
- The recommended time between engine overhauls, and how many hours an engine has run since its last one. A major factor in an aircraft's value.
- Borescope
- A camera inspection of an engine's internal parts, standard in a jet pre-purchase inspection.
- AOG
- "Aircraft on ground": the aircraft can't fly until a fault is fixed.
- RVSM
- Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum: the airspace between 29,000 and 41,000 feet where aircraft and operators need specific approval.
- NAT HLA
- North Atlantic High Level Airspace: the oceanic airspace between North America and Europe, which requires specific equipment and approval.
- CPDLC
- Controller-pilot data link communications: text-based messages between pilots and air traffic control, required or expected on many oceanic routes.
Pilots and training
- Type rating
- A pilot qualification for a specific aircraft type, required for every turbojet.
- Single-pilot jet
- A jet certified to be flown by one pilot, such as the Phenom, Citation CJ series, Mustang, Premier and Eclipse.
- SOE (Supervised Operating Experience)
- 25 hours of supervised flying the FAA requires after a first type rating earned in a simulator. Not required when trained and tested in the aircraft.
- Mentor pilot
- An experienced pilot who flies with a new owner-pilot, often required by insurers for a set number of hours.
Tax and import
- Sales and use tax
- US state taxes that can apply to aircraft purchases, depending on where the aircraft is delivered and based.
- Fly-away exemption
- A state exemption from sales tax when the aircraft leaves the state soon after purchase.
- Import VAT
- VAT charged when an aircraft is imported into the EU, at the rate of the member state of import.
- Temporary admission
- An EU customs procedure that can let some non-EU aircraft operate in Europe without paying import VAT, under strict conditions.
