Aviation Business Journal 1st Quarter 2013 - 25

Doing Business in a Part 135 Environment
Continued from page 23

Scheduled Part 135 Operations
A Part 135 commuter operation is
a passenger-carrying operation for
compensation or hire conducted by
a certificate holder operating at least
five roundtrips per week according to
a published schedule. Importantly,
Part 135 commuter operations are
restricted to non-turbojet airplanes
with nine or fewer passenger seats.
The FAA says a flight is
“scheduled” when the certificate
holder or its representative offers
in advance the departure location,
departure time, and arrival location.
All three conditions must be met in
order to be defined as “scheduled.”
(Incidentally, this is different from
posting empty legs. When most Part
135 on-demand charter operators
post an empty leg, the departure date
is posted as a range of days or the
exact departure and/or destination
airports are somewhat flexible. An
empty leg posted as “Jan. 1 – 4,
2013 from Tampa, Florida (TPA) to
Cleveland, Ohio (CLE)” can likely be
purchased from Sarasota, FL (SRQ)
to Akron-Canton, Ohio (CAK) for
January 3, in which case the operator
has not set the departure location,
departure time, or arrival location.)

On-Demand Part 135 Operations
A Part 135 flight is considered to
be “on-demand” if the passenger or
customer determines at least one of
the three criteria above: departure
location, departure time, or arrival
location. To go back to the previous
example, if a customer decides to
purchase the original empty leg
from Tampa, Florida, to Cleveland,
Ohio, but is able to choose his or
her departure date and time within

Aviation Business Journal | 1st Quarter 2013	

a specified window, this flight is
considered an on-demand flight.
These types of operations represent
the majority of flights under Part 135,
although there are two other types of
operations that a Part 135 on-demand
operator may conduct.
On-demand Part 135 operators
are permitted to conduct a limited
number of scheduled flights (fewer
than five roundtrips on any route per
week) so long as the aircraft is not
a turbojet and it has a maximum of
nine passenger seats.
A Part 135 operator may also
contract with a type indirect air
carrier known as a public charter
operator. These entities are licensed
by the DOT under Part 380 of the
regulations. A public charter operator
is permitted to contract with a Part
135 operator for on-demand flights
and then resell individual seats on
those chartered flights to the public.

“Managed” Aircraft
Aircraft “management” is the
backbone of Part 135 charter
operations because most Part 135
operators could not own enough
aircraft on their own to create a
profitable charter business. The
FAA has no specific definition of
“managed” aircraft, but the industry
has a generally accepted concept
of managed aircraft. Aircraft
management is essentially a legal
arrangement in which the air carrier
provides an aircraft owner with
services for a fixed monthly fee. In
turn, the air carrier is able to use the
aircraft for commercial operations.
The air carrier often assists the
aircraft owner by providing qualified
pilots, scheduling pilots and aircraft,

coordinating maintenance activities,
and marketing the aircraft for
commercial flights.
The vast majority of aircraft used
in the Part 135 industry are managed,
not owned by the air carrier. But this
leads to an important question: Who
is accountable for the aircraft and its
operation? The aircraft owner, or the
air carrier (or management company)?

Operational Control Defined
The short answer is that
accountability for a particular flight is
often established day to day or even
flight to flight.
The regulations partially address
this issue. Part 1 defines a concept
called “operational control.”
Operational control is defined as “the
exercise of authority over initiating,
conducting or terminating a flight.”
Essentially, the FAA asks: Who is
operating the flight? Who has final
accountability for the flight?
How do you establish operational
control? How do you determine which
entity holds operational control — the
aircraft owner or the air carrier — on
a specific flight? There are several
elements that help to establish
operational control.

Elements of Operational Control
Several elements can indicate
which entity — the aircraft owner or
the air carrier — holds operational
control for a specific flight. The FAA
often says that no single variable
proves operational control. Rather,
who holds operational control is
determined by the “totality of the
circumstances.” The following
elements are a few key points
regarding the aircraft that help
Continued on page 26

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Aviation Business Journal 1st Quarter 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aviation Business Journal 1st Quarter 2013
