Airline Charter Flights

[AA34]

With all of the bowl games goin on right now I was wondering how a pilot for the airline being chartered gets to fly that specific flight. Do you just bid for it like a normal schedule, is it based on seniority? Seems like it would be a nice change of pace from the normal everyday routes

[Doug Taylor]

I've done charters. Usually shows up in the bid package, or if it's short notice they'll call a couple reserves out for it.

It's barely different, for cockpit crews, than another scheduled revenue flight.

Often times, you'll fly something offline like PHX-OAK, sit for 40 mins, load up and fly back.

I did a "Lady Vols" charter to Knoxville once during my 727 days.

[Seggy]

The charters usually have great food on them as well!

[AA34]

So what about flights with no pax, say like a delivery or flying a plane some where for maintenance? Same process?

[meritflyer]

ExpressJet has a dedicated corporate aviation division with 7 or 8 EMB-145's. Just recently we made the news flying presidential hopeful Mitt Romney around. Also, we do a ton of stuff with NCAA, NASCAR, and other sports organizations. About 4 weeks ago I flew into Phoenix and saw three of our charter jets in a semi-circle. Apparently, they were doing a large NASCAR charter.

[MQAAord]

New deliveries of aircraft are done either by management pilots or pilots who have undergone specific training for deliveries. Not just any pilot can go to the manufacturer and pick up a new plane for an airline.

At Eagle (when I was in my last year there, 2000) there were a few ATR pilots who were actually based up at SAW. Their specific job was to ferry ATRs between the SAW base and MIA for maintenance. They never wore a uniform, never flew pax, and didn't have a chief pilot at their "base". It was a uber-sweet position held by a couple really senior old Simmons guys who'd pretty much been at Simmons since the beginning. I don't know if this particular program is still in place at this time.

Most maintenance/test flights are done by reserve pilots called out on a reserve assignment, same as any other flight, and paid the same as any other flight.

Charter flights, if known about in advance, would be in the bid packs. If not known about in time for bid pack publishing the trip would be in OT and available for someone to pick up. If no one picked it up it would be assigned to a RSV pilot same as any other trip in OT when it came time to cover open trips for the day.

[JEP]

Originally Posted by AA34

So what about flights with no pax, say like a delivery or flying a plane some where for maintenance? Same process?

A CFI I flew with before is now an A320 Sim instructor for NWA. Many times he will be able to fly some of the maintenance/ferry flights. They are usually all short notice stuff.