Originally Posted by
i fly planes
The nice thing about legacies doing these high profile charters is that if your Boeing or Airbus experiences a mechanical sitting on the FBO ramp, you just send another Boeing or Airbus. Take one 737 out of service at any charter outfit and the cascading effects are remarkable for days.
It's a love hate relationship with main line carriers. They touted their flexibility, but in practice it's not that simple. As the article points out, the main line carriers either have to guarantee the charter or use their back up aircraft to protect their mainline operations.
The mainline carriers seem to float in and out of the charter market. When they are in, the Supplemental carriers suffer. When they go out of the market, there's reduced supplemental lift to cover. I've seen this cycle numerous times with both military and civilian charters.