Interesting point of view from a number of people who don't think, on the face of it, that a flight under an AOC is any safer than with a PPL.
An AOC (even the smallest) where standard operating procedures are mandated, operations manuals Part A to D must be followed, a Safety Management System applies, aircraft technical ground school courses are completed at induction or when changing aircraft types, Dangerous Goods course (yearly), CRM (yearly), Route & Aerodrome competence course (yearly), Compliance/Quality system in force, where the CAA audits 2-4 times a year - one a flight check, where external auditors audit around 4 times per year, where the pilots have around three flight checks per year (instrument rating, OPC, LPC, Line), a technical exam (yearly), a class one medical, emergency training (first aid, fire and life jacket/raft*) with exam (yearly except *), insurance company mandated qualification and experience levels, and these days even in a basic aircraft a quite sophisticated FDR data acquisition (even from a G1000 fit or similar), Flight time limitations are observed etc, etc etc, or you could have the Wingly PPL with 55 hours ........... or the grey/illegal charter up from Nantes
Really ???