I sit here every day as an AOC operator getting more and more depressed that we continue to lose work to bent charters.
We were quoting on a Dubai-Nice last night only for it to go to an operator who will need to get traffic rights in both the UAE and France for the charter who then spent the rest of the evening advertising one ways all around Europe (all of which, if they don't apply for the permits, would be in contravention of cabotage laws).
We pay a shed load of cash each year to our Regulatory Authority, employ Quality Managers, Safety Managers, Training Managers, Flight Safety Managers, Health and Safety Managers, Internal Auditors, External Auditors etc etc et*******cetera and when is the last time I heard of an aircraft being impounded and the operator being fined or imprisoned for it? Yep, exactly, never. I know that the UK ANO has recently been updated to include the ability for a broker to be charged with aiding and abetting an illegal charter but that is only one place (where to be honest bent charters are getting a lot less).
It's massively soul-destroying when we are trying to do it all properly and legally only to watch it go on a bent or law-breaking charter to save money (for someone, even if it's not the end client).
Don't know why I'm complaining really, it's gone on for years and nobody's ever done anything about it. Even when we tip off the Regulatory Authorities who have regional offices on airports where we know bent charters are happening with times and dates (as we should to protect the jobs and livelihoods of everyone who works for the company) nothing happens.
I can appreciate from a pilot's side that it's a job and you'll do what it takes to keep that job, but I'd hate to see the repercussions for a pilot if there was an accident which killed passengers, wrote off the aircraft and the insurance refused to cover it and the pilots survived. Would be painful, expensive and a nice stay in one of the finest prisons in the world in all probability.
That's a mildly depressing reply isn't it?
