Summary

  • FAA plans to amend definitions for charter operations, aiming to regulate public charters more closely for increased safety.
  • Safety Risk Management Panel will assess creating new operating authority for 10-30 seat aircraft to ensure stringent rules for charters.
  • Potential impact on JSX, a part 135 operator, as FAA seeks to close loopholes, possibly requiring transition to Part 121 with stricter regulations.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration will take two actions to address how public charter flights operate. The goal of the newly announced plans is to increase flexibility and safety for passengers.

Bringing about change in charter operations

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the governing authority over aviation in the United States (US). Founded in 1958, it is an agency of the Department of Transportation (DOT) responsible for all safety and aviation-related operations and regulations. As charter operations have increased in recent years, the FAA is taking action to ensure those operations remain as safe as possible.

Earlier today, the FAA announced two points of action to ensure safe public charter flights. The first thing the FAA intends to do is to amend part 110 definitions of “scheduled,” “on demand,” and “supplemental” operations. The goal with changing this is to require public charters to operate under the same regulations as non-public charters. Because of these definitions, carriers like JSX are able to operate through a “loophole”, though that might soon change.

Though the FAA intends to issue the notice of proposed rulemaking as soon as possible, it will seek comment on the changes. It is normal for any proposed rule to seek comment, and in this case, it will be for a date for operators to adapt to changes.

The second part of today’s announcement is that the FAA will create a Safety Risk Management Panel (SRMP) to decide whether a new operating authority for Part 135 operations can be created for aircraft between 10-30 seats.

“Part of the safety mission of the FAA is identifying risk early on, and that’s exactly what we’re doing on public charters as usage expands. If a company is effectively operating as a scheduled airline, the FAA needs to determine whether those operations should follow the same stringent rules as scheduled airlines.” – Mike Whitaker, Administrator, FAA

Whitaker added that the FAA’s goal is to bring more options to smaller and rural communities, not just focus on major cities that already benefit from plenty of air service.

How this could affect JSX

JSX is a part 135 operator whose operations focus mostly on the Southwest US but also include Florida, New York, and Mexico. The carrier operates Embraer ERJ135 and ERJ 145 aircraft. As a part 135 operator, carriers’ primary business cannot be scheduled flights, but all of JSX’s flights are scheduled.

Several JSX Embraer aircraft parked on an airport apron.

Photo: JSX

The carrier claims to be an on-demand operator, with flights sold on its website, while Delux Public Charter operates the flights. As a result, the airline is able to continue with scheduled operations even though its aircraft have more than nine seats. If the “loophole” is closed and JSX is forced to become a Part 121 operator, it will be required to operate from airport terminals with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening and its pilots would need to have a minimum of 1,500 hours before being hired.

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