So, if I am running a small charter company, and someone walks in the door:
”I want to hire an aircraft from you. “
”That’s what we do, aircraft and pilot will be $400 per day plus $300 per hour, the pilot will be CPL qualified, the operation will be under our AOC and you’ll be covered by our insurance. “
”No, I want to use our own pilot. “
”Hmm, we can probably do that. We’ll have to check them, approve them under our ops manual, and charge you for that, assuming they pass. That’s all required by our insurance and AOC“
“No, I just want the aircraft, I’ll deal with the rest. “
”Ah, you don’t want to hire an aircraft. You want to lease one. That will require a guarantee for the value of the aircraft over the lease rate, but after that, yes you will be liable for insurance, maintenance and finding someone to pilot it. If the people and goods you are transporting are all connected to you and not paying, it’s a Private operation and the pilot can be a PPL”