Starting a charter company?
 

Is there any info out there on how to (and what the pitfalls are) of offering an aircraft for charter?

I realise the base of business is key, but it is the operational, licensing and employer's issues I am interested in.

To obtain a sufficient understanding of those issues I recommend a 2-year distance learning course for the Membership exams of the Institute of Logistics & Transport, while working for nothing in the offices of a good charter company to learn the basics of the charter business.

You are presumably hoping to be the Accountable Manager of an AOC-holding company; you must demonstrate that you have the knowledge, experience and skills needed to carry out that job. To say nothing of having total authority to run the finances of the company, together with the finance to run.

It used to be that an airline pilot with a big pay-off could set up a little company, buy a Navajo, and lose all his money in a year, often because while he was flying the aircraft (no actual pay, of course, for doing that), Tracey in the office was filing her nails and screwing the business up.

Those days are gone, I understand.

But, good luck anyway from this old curmudgeon!

Well, you haven't provided much data on what you want to do, nor who you can count on to assist you, so let's assume you just started thinking about it.

Instead of focusing on the knowledge and skills you're gonna need, I'll focus on the information you asked for.

First of all, as Capot said, you're gonna need an AOC, Air Operator Certificate. Requirements to obtain one are, to put it bluntly, a pain in the $£!... Paperwork. Lots of it.

The best way to know what you're going to need, the manuals you'll need to prepare, the company internal structure mandatory by law, is to check several documents :

- EU-OPS 1, European legislation for air operators. The basic manual. It tells you basically everything, but you'll have to read it well to find everything important for your project. Just a small tip, coming back to what Capot was talking about : EU OPS 1.175 says that as long as you employ less than 20 FTE people, you only need one Postholder, the Accountable Manager. Once you employ 21 or more people, you'll need a minimum of two more Postholders to take care of Flight Ops, Ground Ops, Maintenance and Crew Training, as long as those two are acceptable by your national authority. You can find the PDF here : http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...01:0206:EN:PDF

While searching it, I also found this : COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 965/2012 of 5 October 2012
laying down technical requirements and administrative procedures related to air operations pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...01:0148:EN:PDF

- European FCL (don't know if it's still called JAR-FCL or not) : http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/...01:0193:EN:PDF

Legislation, you'll agree, isn't fun at all. I found out that the swiss FOCA actually made nice, very informative documents on what is actually needed to apply for an AOC (appart for the swiss specific documents and regulations, it's basically the same documents every civil aviation authority in Europe will ask you for). You can find everything here : FOCA - I am a holder of an AOC

A little excerpt :
Check list Formal Application Phase
Proposed Revision / Amendment Form (PRA) for each and individual Manual
OM-A
Quality Manual, if not integrated in OM-A
OM-B for each type of aircraft (according to cover page OM-B document evaluating) OM-C
OM-D
Annex III Compliance List (ACL)
CSPM – Cabin Safety Procedure Manual (incl. Safety on Board Card), if applicable
MEL – Minimum Equipment List
OPS Subpart K & L
EASA26
Security Program
Dangerous Goods
CAME – Continuing Airworthiness Management Exposition
Maintenance Contract
Maintenance Procedure Manual
Aeroplane Technical Log (Tech Log)
Maintenance Program
Reliability Program
Application for RNAV (incl. RNP)
Application for ETOPS, if applicable
Application for RVSM, if applicable
Application for MNPS, if applicable
Application for AWO incl. LVTO, if applicable
Application for Steep Approaches, if applicable
Operator’s Declaration
OPS Implementation Schedule
Ground Handling Manual, if applicable
Application for CMC (Crew Member Certificate) Form 44.22 / 5840.03
Application for ICAO Code and Call sign Form 44.21 / 5840.04
Application for route licenses, if applicable
Schedule plan, if applicable
Air Fare plan, if applicable
Aeroplane List, type of aircraft, registration, serial number, homebase, passenger seating capacity

Regarding employment, Google is your best friend. Use it to find employment legislation for the country you want to base your charter airline, and you'll probably find everything you need to know in a matter of minutes...

Starting a project like that from scratch and all by yourself, forget about it. You'll need expertise, experience, and that for all the aspects of the operation. Good luck if you choose to go ahead despite all I just posted here. All the best!

Thanks for the great info, very preliminary and essentially weighing up the options at the moment.