How to Vet a Charter Operator Before You Book

The private aviation market is crowded with intermediaries. Some add real value. Many simply resell another company's aircraft with a markup and no operational control over anything that happens once the door closes.

Before you send a deposit on an empty leg flight or any private charter, confirm who is actually flying the airplane. These five checks take under twenty minutes and tell you everything you need to know.

1. Ask for the Part 135 certificate number

A direct operator holds an FAA Part 135 air carrier certificate in its own name. This is the federal authorization required to conduct commercial charter operations in the United States. Ask for the certificate number directly — then verify it yourself at the FAA's online registry.

If the answer is vague, delayed, or the certificate belongs to a third party, you are talking to a broker. That's not automatically disqualifying, but you deserve to know who is actually operating the flight before you pay for it.

Every operator on LPJFlights submits their Part 135 certificate number before account activation. We cross-check it against the FAA registry. No certificate, no listing — that's the policy, no exceptions.

2. Confirm the aircraft is on that certificate

An operator can hold a Part 135 certificate and still source your specific tail from a different company. Ask whether the tail number on your quote appears on their operations specifications — the FAA document that lists every aircraft they're authorized to operate commercially.

If the tail isn't on their ops specs, a third party is flying you, regardless of who took your booking.

3. Review insurance limits

Request a certificate of insurance showing liability limits for the specific aircraft type on your quote. Reputable Part 135 operators produce this within minutes. Hesitation or a generic document that doesn't name the aircraft type is a yellow flag worth investigating before you commit.

4. Check crew experience minimums

Ask about pilot-in-command hours in type — meaning hours specifically in the aircraft category you're flying, not total flight hours. Ask whether the operator flies two-pilot crews on every leg, including light jets. Some operators meet the minimum legal standard; others exceed it by policy. Know which one you're booking.

5. Read the cancellation terms twice

Empty leg flights cancel more often than scheduled charters. The originating charter that created the empty leg can reschedule, delay, or cancel — and the empty leg moves with it. Before you book, know exactly whether you receive a full refund, a platform credit, or a rebooking on the next available leg. Get it in writing, not as a verbal assurance.

The shortcut

If you're booking through LPJFlights, steps one and two are already handled. Every operator on the platform has submitted their Part 135 certificate, had it verified against the FAA registry, and agreed to our listing terms before a single flight appears on the map.

You still own steps three through five. Those are conversations between you and the operator — and they're worth having on every booking regardless of where you find the flight.