Originally Posted by
JETUPANDGO
The FAA frowns upon Brokers because they cannot regulate them. Everything is fine until an accident/incident occurs and then the FAA gets really insecure about Brokers. The FAA can revoke/suspend an operators charter cert., but they do not have the same authority to stop a broker from continuing to operate. They feel that the Broker is misrepresenting to the public that they can control all the aspects of the Aircrafts Operation.
A good Broker works for the customer, not the operator. And thats why many Charter Operaters frown upon Brokers. Brokers will call multiple Operators, and drive down the price by having operators competeing against eachother.
As in any business, a good Broker cannot be purely price driven. They have to way all aspects of the flight to give their Customers quality service.
As I've been explaining to other people in this forum about brokering...you seem to not have ready any of my posts.
I don't know if you read the memo or not, I have a copy if you want it. But in 2006 the FAA pretty much laid down the law about brokering a/c.
YOU HAVE TO BE A INDIRECT OR DIRECT AIR CARRIER IN ORDER TO BE A CHARTER BROKER. If you are the actual shipper, you don't need a certificate. I just had a meeting at the Detroit FSDO on Friday to go over some specifics regarding our certificate with Air Freight. They do have the authority to yank my certificate. Charter operators do not frown upon brokers...unless you're saying Active Aero/USA Jet, Kalitta, and Ameristar are all frowning upon themselves.
Those three airlines have there own brokering department. And I do use Kalitta's because they are nice people and I'm busy half the time to call every carrier in my back pocket.
I'm pretty sure Active Aero is the largest 3PL company in the United States...and may I add that this "Charter Broker" handles all of Johnson Controls' Air Charters. But here's the funny part. In turn, Active Aero brokers those charters out to a couple companies! An airline that is acting as a broker sends it to another company for brokering! (And JCI has no problems with this because of the service they get)
Hey! You know who handles all Charters for Chrystler and GM? A Charter Broker!! NLM is the premier brokering company for automotive.
And it is a price driven market right now. Whoever is the lowest wins. If the airline wants the trip, they'll match the price. It's called competing.
That is my rant...and stop giving brokers a bad name.
PS, I've had two accidents under my belt...one with one of my planes and one brokered out. The brokered out plane crashed and nothing happend to the cert we were operating under because I didn't force the plane to fly, the airline did. All I do is buy the plane, not fly it.