What's the difference between 'owned' and 'chartered'?

[znww5]

I've noticed that a club has recently changed the 'Ownership Status' of much of its fleet from 'Owned' to 'Chartered' on G-INFO, although the Registered Owners information remains the same.

I'm curious to know why they would want to do that; is there any advantage which the new status confers? I'd be most grateful if anyone can shed some light on the matter, as I find it rather puzzling.

[DeltaV]

I'd say it's much the same as a person or a business buying or leasing a car. On the one hand they don't own the thing so they might be doing it to free up investment in an asset or, on the other it could be to provide better reliability and flexibility to their members.

[znww5]

Yes, I could understand why a club might want to lease (charter) aircraft to free up capital, but the thing that puzzles me is that the aircraft still belong to the same company, so no capital has been released.

Bearing in mind that some schools have set up separate companies to 'own' the aircraft, so the major assets (ie aircraft) are inaccessible should the club fail, I am wondering if this is a permutation on the same theme. That is to say, the company retains ownership of the aircraft, but then sets up a subsidiary company to actually operate the school itself.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I confess that I am still rather puzzled!

[aircraft]

Could be used as a method of protection from losing assets if the original owner / company was facing bakruptcy