Indeed, but if one (or more) of the passengers have arranged and paid for the supply of the plane, and the pilots were just a hired crew to fly it, the flight is legal and that's the end of it.
A lot of people (AOC holders
) don't like this but that's the way it works here, and more importantly that's the way it works under FAA rules which is what the vast majority of the world's aviation runs under, and bizjets do fly internationally.
A lot of people don't like this mode of operation because they have had to spend a load of money getting an AOC so they can carry four golfers with their gear from A to B in a clapped out old Seneca, making £300 on the flight, whereas a whole parallel universe of multi-million bizjets, hired crews incl cabin staff in nice short skirts, high net worth customers, etc, exists alongside, and they don't need an AOC
because somebody on board supplied the plane for the pilots to fly.
Like with N-reg (for/against) one can spot the axe grinders from 1nm away
Fractional ownerships are legal in an N-reg.
Why Netjets went to Euro reg I don't know. Perhaps somebody told them they would be hit with some under the table sanctions if they used N-reg planes. Or maybe some aspect of their operation would be prohibited under the likes of article 140.
The precise expectation of safety on the part of the passengers is a separate matter, and will always be open to opinion. IMHO only a mug would expect a 747 safety level. It gets even more interesting when one extends the passenger safety argument to GA - one quickly arrives at a total ban on PPLs carrying passengers.
Only an industry expert will know that the actual safely level is in fact pretty close to a large transport jet, but the issue is clouded by the varying routes flown at short notice. If you picked the average BA ATP and got him to fly his 747 to a different place every night, any opinions on whether the operation would be as safe?