Learn
Plain-English guides to how private charter actually works, written for people comparison-shopping their first charter, not for the industry.
Guides
Empty legs · 3 min
How empty legs work
A repositioning flight sold at a discount, on the operator's schedule. Why the price drops, what you trade for it, and the one comparison that tells you if it is a deal.
Pricing · 4 min
How to read a charter quote, and why two of them never match
Hourly rate, billable time, repositioning, the fees layer, and the 7.5% tax: the parts inside every quote, a worked LA to Las Vegas example, and the 3 questions that make two numbers comparable.
Empty legs · 3 min
Empty leg or full charter: which one your trip is
The discount comes with the constraint attached. How to tell which product fits your dates, your route, and your tolerance for a flight that can vanish.
History · 5 min
Nobody built these airports for you
Long Beach's terminal spent the war billeting soldiers, Palm Springs opened as an Army emergency strip, Oxnard was 3,500 feet of dirt. One field on the list was built as an airport from day one, and even that one was built for the wrong kind of flying.
Strategy · 3 min
The case for the quiet field
Everyone defaults to Van Nuys. For a lot of trips the better answer is the smaller airport 20 minutes closer to you, and there is a 60-second way to check.
First-timer · 3 min
Your first charter: what happens at the FBO
No shuttle, no counter, no security line, no gate. The sequence from the drive in to the door closing, with the one address mistake to avoid.
Buying guide · 8 min
Every way to fly private, sorted by how many hours a year you fly
Charter, empty legs, jet cards, memberships, fractional shares, whole ownership. What each one commits you to, what that does to the price, and the one number that decides between them.