Originally Posted by CFI Guy

There is no money in chartering small aircraft. No super wealthy people are going to go tooling around in an old piston plane over the water. They are either going to fly on a commercial airline or perhaps a light jet. The only clientele that might be interested in your services are the ones who move product from the jungles of South America.

The secret is no charter aircraft make money. You can find numerous planes that charter for direct operating cost or less. This means zero profit.

So how do these companies stay in business? They do not own aircraft. They are management companies who find aircraft owners to place aircraft on their charter certificate. They also typically have a repair station certificate (many start out this way and later add a charter certificate) so they can make money on the maintenance.

Charter companies take a percentage of the hourly charter (10-20%) no matter if the trip is profitable or not. The aircraft owner collects the rest of the revenue, less expenses. The charter company then charges a monthly "management fee" and proceeds to nickle-and-dime for everything under the sun. The aircraft owner is lucky to break even or have a slight loss in any given year. Most lose a lot of money on paper. They reap the tax deductions which can be a lot of money for a multi million dollar jet. This is the only way it makes sense.

As someone else mentioned, most wealthy individuals who use such services carry large life insurance polices which prohibit them from flying in a single engine aircraft. They will also require you to have liability policies for $100 million and up.

South Florida is notorious for sketchy charter companies that come and go.