Private Jet Charter Glossary

Charter has a vocabulary, and most of it ends up on your quote. This glossary explains the terms the way we use them when we price and plan a flight — what each one is, and what it changes about your trip. Thirty entries, grouped the way a booking actually unfolds.

Chartering

Charter broker

A charter broker arranges private flights on a client’s behalf but does not own or operate aircraft — it contracts a certified operator for each trip. The broker’s job is sourcing the right aircraft, negotiating the rate, vetting the operator’s certification and insurance, and managing the trip end to end. Jet Supply is a broker: we arrange aircraft, we do not operate them. The distinction matters legally — the operator, not the broker, holds responsibility for the flight itself.

Operator (and AOC)

An operator is the company that actually flies the aircraft — it employs the crew, maintains the jet and holds the Air Operator Certificate (AOC), the licence a civil aviation authority issues for commercial flying. In Europe an AOC is granted under EASA rules; a charter sold to the public must be flown by an AOC holder. When you charter through a broker, every quote should name an AOC-certified operator behind it.

Empty leg

An empty leg is a repositioning flight that would otherwise fly without passengers — typically the return of a one-way charter or a ferry to the next pick-up. Operators discount them heavily, commonly 25–75% off the on-demand price, because the aircraft flies either way. The trade-off is rigidity: the date, routing and aircraft are fixed, and the flight can be cancelled or re-timed if the primary booking changes. See our empty leg guide.

Positioning (ferry) flight

A positioning or ferry flight moves an aircraft without passengers — from its home base to your departure airport, or onward after drop-off. On-demand charter prices include positioning in the quote, which is why the same route can price differently depending on where the nearest available aircraft sits that day, and why a one-way trip is not simply half a round trip.

Air ambulance (medevac)

An air ambulance is an aircraft configured for medical transport — a stretcher system, medical oxygen, monitoring and a medical crew — chartered for evacuation or repatriation when a scheduled flight is impossible or unwise. It is arranged like any charter, plus a clinical layer: a medical team assesses fitness to fly, and the receiving hospital is coordinated before departure. We arrange air ambulance charter around the clock; the operator and medical provider carry clinical responsibility.

Jet card and fractional ownership

A jet card is prepaid flight time at fixed hourly rates; fractional ownership is buying a share of a specific aircraft with guaranteed access. Both trade flexibility for predictability, and both carry commitments that only pay off above a certain number of flight hours a year. For most flyers under roughly 50 hours annually, on-demand charter remains the cheaper structure — our comparison guide runs the arithmetic.

Pricing

Block time (block hour)

Block time is the interval from the moment the aircraft first moves under its own power to the moment it parks — taxi out, flight, taxi in. Charter is priced per block hour, not per airborne hour, which is why a quoted ‘flight time’ on an invoice is longer than the time you spend in the air. A London–Paris sector is roughly 35 minutes airborne but close to an hour of block time.

All-in rate

An all-in rate bundles the block-hour price with the costs that always occur — positioning, landing and handling fees, standard catering and passenger taxes — so the quote you accept is the amount you pay. The alternative, a teaser base rate with surcharges arriving later, is common in the industry. Our published prices are all-in; de-icing and third-party extras like ground transfers are the standard exclusions.

Minimum charge (daily minimum)

Operators bill short flights against a minimum — commonly around 1.5 block hours per day, more for heavy jets — because a 40-minute hop still consumes a crew duty day and an aircraft’s availability. This is why the shortest routes carry the highest cost per kilometre: a London–Paris charter prices at the minimum, not the 52-minute block. If your sector is very short, the minimum charge, not distance, sets the price.

Peak day

Peak days are calendar dates of concentrated demand — major holidays, school breaks, marquee events like the Monaco Grand Prix — on which operators apply surcharges, tighten cancellation terms and enforce longer minimums. Booking around a peak day, even by 24 hours, often moves the price more than changing aircraft class.

De-icing

De-icing is the removal of frozen contamination from the airframe before departure, billed per application at the airport’s rates — from a few hundred euros on a light jet to several thousand on a heavy jet at a congested hub. It is the one significant cost honest quotes exclude, because nobody controls the weather; treat any winter charter budget as the quote plus a de-icing contingency.

One-way pricing

One-way pricing charges only your occupied sector, with the operator absorbing the repositioning risk — the model behind published ‘from’ prices on high-traffic routes. Where demand is thinner, quotes may instead include the empty return. Which model applies depends on how likely the operator is to sell the aircraft’s next sector; on dense corridors like London–Nice, one-way pricing is standard.

Aircraft

Cabin classes

Charter aircraft group into classes by cabin size and range: very light and entry-level jets (2–5 seats, short hops), light and super-light (6–8 seats, up to ~3 hours), midsize and super-midsize (8–10 seats, continental range), heavy jets (10–16 seats, intercontinental), ultra-long-range (14–19 seats, 12+ hours nonstop) and VIP airliners. Class drives price more than any other choice — see our fleet for hourly rates per class.

Range (nautical miles)

Aviation measures distance in nautical miles (1 nm = 1.852 km) and aircraft range as the maximum distance flyable with reserves — but the usable number is always lower than the brochure figure, because range shrinks with a full cabin, headwinds and weather reserves. A ‘3,600 nm’ jet is not a reliable 3,600 nm jet with eight passengers in winter; matching real range to your sector is part of the broker’s job.

MTOW

Maximum take-off weight — the certified ceiling for aircraft, fuel, passengers and baggage combined. MTOW drives airport fees (landing charges scale with weight), runway requirements and, on hot days or short runways, the practical trade between fuel and payload. It is also the threshold many airport noise and operating restrictions key on.

Tech stop

A tech stop is a refuelling landing with no passenger change, inserted when the sector exceeds the aircraft’s practical range. It typically adds 45–60 minutes and an extra set of airport fees. The classic charter arithmetic: a smaller jet with a tech stop is often cheaper than a nonstop heavy jet — but not faster; whether the stop is worth it depends on which you are optimising.

Turboprop

A turboprop is a propeller aircraft driven by a turbine engine — slower and lower-flying than a jet, but dramatically cheaper per hour and able to use runways jets cannot. On sectors under about 500 km, block-time difference versus a light jet is often 15–20 minutes, while the hourly rate is roughly half. The Pilatus PC-12 and Beechcraft King Air series dominate the class.

Airports and operations

FBO (fixed-base operator)

An FBO is the private-aviation terminal and handling business at an airport — the building you actually use when flying privately. It provides lounges, crew facilities, fuelling, and ramp access; you drive to the FBO, not the airline terminal, and boarding is typically minutes after arrival. Large airports host several competing FBOs; which one your flight uses is set in the trip sheet.

GA terminal

GA (general aviation) terminal is the airport-run equivalent of an FBO — a dedicated facility for private flights, common at European airports where handling is centralised (Munich and Vienna both run their own). Functionally identical for the passenger: separate entrance, private security screening, direct ramp access.

Airport slot

A slot is a scheduled permission to take off or land at a coordinated airport within a time window. Congested hubs (Nice, Palma in summer, London airports) require slots for private flights too, and slot availability — not aircraft availability — is often what actually constrains a peak-season departure time. Slot changes on the day are normal; your broker manages them with the handler.

PPR (prior permission required)

PPR means the airport must approve each movement in advance — standard at business-aviation airports that manage their own capacity (Farnborough runs full PPR) and at small fields with limited parking. PPR lead times range from an hour to several days in ski season; it is one of the quiet reasons charter needs operational lead time even when an aircraft is available.

Curfew

A curfew closes an airport, or restricts movements, during night hours — enforced by law or planning permission, with no commercial exceptions. London City closes overnight and most of Sunday morning; Farnborough’s hours are fixed by planning law. Curfews interact with delays: a late-evening departure that slips past the curfew does not leave that night. Route planning around curfews is basic broker craft.

Steep approach

A steep approach is a certified landing profile markedly steeper than the standard 3° glidepath — London City’s 5.5° is the famous case — required where obstacles or noise rules demand it. Aircraft and crews must be specifically certified, which is why only a subset of business jets can serve London City, and why ‘nearest airport to Canary Wharf’ and ‘cheapest London airport’ are different answers.

Ground handling

Handling covers everything done to an aircraft and its passengers on the ground — marshalling, baggage, fuelling coordination, catering delivery, crew transport, and the paperwork with the airport. It is billed per movement and included in an all-in quote. The handler (FBO or GA terminal) is also who your driver meets; ‘which handler?’ is the first question for any airport pickup.

Regulation, safety and borders

EASA

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency — the regulator whose rules govern European commercial operations, including charter. An EASA AOC is the European licence to sell flights to the public; it imposes crew duty limits, maintenance regimes and operational oversight far beyond private (non-commercial) flying. The American equivalent framework for charter is FAA Part 135.

ARGUS and Wyvern

ARGUS and Wyvern are independent auditors that rate charter operators beyond the legal minimum — reviewing safety history, crew experience and maintenance depth. Ratings like ARGUS Gold/Platinum or Wyvern Wingman are voluntary, operator-level credentials worth asking about when a specific operator is proposed for your trip. They rate operators, not brokers.

GAR (General Aviation Report)

The UK’s advance-notice filing for private flights crossing its border — passenger and crew details submitted to Border Force before arrival or departure. The operator or handler files it; passengers only need to supply passport details in time. Late GAR filing, not aircraft readiness, is a classic cause of slipped UK departure times.

APIS

Advance Passenger Information System — the electronic manifest many countries (the US among them) require before an inbound flight departs. As with the UK GAR, filing is the operator’s job, but it is the reason a broker asks for passport scans well before a transatlantic trip, and the reason a last-minute passenger change is more than a formality.

Schengen and customs on private flights

Within the Schengen area, private flights operate without routine passport control, though airports can require customs presence with notice for non-Schengen arrivals. Flying private does not mean skipping immigration — it means clearing it in the FBO, usually in minutes, with officers attending the aircraft or the private terminal. Non-Schengen sectors (the UK above all) always carry border formalities.

Noise restrictions

Airports increasingly regulate by noise category: quota-count systems, marginally-compliant-aircraft bans, and per-movement noise fees. For charter this occasionally rules out older aircraft types at sensitive airports, and it is one more reason two quotes for the same route can name different jets. Noise rules are airport law, not operator preference.

Where to go next

Prices for every class and lane are on the charter price index; the cost guide explains how a quote is built; and if a term on an actual quote is unclear, ask an advisor — around the clock.