Picking the right charter: how to do due diligence on your air carrier.

Since the September 11 tragedy, air travel via scheduled carriers has become more difficult, more time consuming and more stressful. Many companies that had not used charter aircraft before 9/11 are now sending their top executives on business jets that tailor their schedule to the executives' specific requirements.

This can be an excellent business decision. The plane will leave when you want it to leave, departing from the airport you choose and going to the airport you choose. There will be no stress caused by long security examinations. And depending upon the number of people, the actual dollar cost of chartering an airplane can be comparable to scheduled airline services, particularly if the executives fly first class or executive class.

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But while chartering a plane might be a good business decision in one sense, if the charter plane crashes and burns with your company's top management team aboard or your CEO suffers a heart attack and there's no defibrillator aboard, it probably wasn't the best business decision.

What that means is that chief executives and their teams need to conduct due diligence on the charter companies they use. While many air charter carriers boast safety records and procedures better than those of scheduled airlines, unfortunately, there are also many operators who do not adhere to the highest safety standards. The largest Yellow Pages ad, or the slickest brochure, is not the best way to choose a charter plane operator. After all, you're sending not only your friends and colleagues on the airplane; you're sending the management backbone of your company.

Fortunately, your company's travel manager or aircraft charter broker can easily perform the necessary investigation. There are several key questions to ask and documents to request to confirm the answers.

First, ask if the charter company is a certified Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 135 carrier. This is the equivalent of a New York cab having a license. If the company is not licensed, don't fly with them. If they say they are licensed, request a copy of their Air Carrier Certificate. The certificate must be in the same name as the charter company. If not, it's likely that the airplane is operating under another company's certificate. That does not necessarily mean the plane is dangerous, but it's not necessarily the safest choice. This is referred to as "piggy backing" and under current FAA regulations is rarely legal.

Second, ask if the specific aircraft you're booking is Part 135 approved. To be approved, the specific airplane has to meet FAA minimum maintenance and inspection standards. Request a copy of D085 FAA Ops. Spec., which lists all approved aircraft, by registration number, under the company's Air Carrier Certificate. If the particular aircraft is not listed, it is not approved by the FAA for Air Carrier Service. Therefore, it does not meet the same standards as a properly FAA approved, and listed, aircraft.

If you are offered transportation on an aircraft not properly FAA licensed on the carrier's certificate, it is considered to be illegal and is a direct indication that the particular airplane does not meet minimum FAA maintenance and inspection requirements.

Does the charter company have a current DOT approval? If so, request a copy of their OST-4507 DOT certificate. This document confirms that the Department of Transportation has issued an approval to the charter company to function as an airline if it meets the FAA requirements and lists all aircraft eligible for FAA consideration and approval.

What is the liability insurance coverage for the particular airplane? There may be several different owners of the aircraft within the fleet, so coverage may vary plane by plane. Five million dollars per seat available, or $50 million (with no deductible), on the specific jet aircraft should be considered absolute minimum liability coverage. A waiver of subrogation in favor of your company should be included. The policy should indicate charter operations are covered, as well as other perils such as war and hijacking.

At first glance, $50 million of coverage might seem like an excessive requirement, but consider what would happen if the plane crashed into a factory, or office building, or even a school. Multiple plaintiffs will be in line, and your company, as well as the executives' families, may have little, if any, of the proceeds to share.

Ask if the pilots on this specific flight have received simulator training for this aircraft within the past 12 months on Flight Safety, SimuFlite or SimCom equipment. This is very important because typically each aircraft in a fleet has at least one crew, and for busy carriers, there are usually two full crews--pilot and co-pilot--for each aircraft.

On a midsize business jet, recurrent annual simulator training costs can easily exceed $ 20,000 per pilot. For two full crews, that means almost $100,000 per airplane per year. Because this is not an FAA requirement, some operators forgo this training. The savings go directly to their bottom line. But studies have shown that simulator training is the most effective way to prepare a pilot for the various in-flight emergencies the pilot might encounter.

The alternative to simulator training is training in the aircraft while in flight. However, certain maneuvers in an aircraft are just too dangerous so they aren't practiced.

Another question: Is the charter carrier ARG/US or Wyvern approved? It should be. Both organizations evaluate the processes and systems in place at a charter carrier to determine whether they meet the highest safety procedures, training and maintenance schedules. The requirements of both organizations far exceed government requirements for air carriers.

ARG/US centralizes the due diligence process. The company constantly monitors public documents for accident reports and FAA violations. If a charter operator, aircraft or crew member is involved in an accident or violation, ARG/US will include it in its database. The database is searchable either by subscription or a one time fee of $249.

To meet the ARG/US Platinum standard, an on site safety audit must be held at least every two years to verify "best of industry" safety procedures and processes are in place and followed. The audit requires charter operators to provide detailed data on both the aircraft operated and the pilots who fly them. Age of the aircraft, type of avionics, maintenance procedures and crew experience are evaluated. (For more information, go to http://www.aviationresearch.com/cheqonline/index.asp.)

Wyvern offers a similar due diligence service, except its service is more proactive. In addition to the various safety audits of procedures, operations, aircraft and pilots, the company applies minimums of what its top-tier clients expect. In short, the standard selects the top tier of a company's operation, both aircraft and pilots. Annual subscriptions to the service are available for frequent users and a onetime check is $325.

For example, a copilot with 100 hours of time flying a Challenger (or other specific aircraft) may well be capable of flying the aircraft safely, and certainly meets FAA requirements. Wyvern's clients (frequently Fortune 500 type corporations), however, may require a copilot to have 1,000 hours (10 times more experience) in a particular type of aircraft.

There's little question but that these raised standards pay off. From 2000 to 2005, there were 18 Part 135 business jet accidents in the U.S. with 31 fatalities. None involved Wyvern compliant flights.

Wyvern's service is probably easier to use for the travel planner with little experience evaluating charter aircraft safety. They'll only list the operators, aircraft and pilots with the highest standards, typically the top 10 percent of those available. For a 'test drive' of the service, go to http://www.wyvernltd.com/Index.asp and in the box for access code, type "test" and in the password box, type "drive."

Even if none of your executives have any known dangerous or potentially fatal health problems, you should confirm the charter operator has an in-flight medical link to a board-certified emergency department physician, the proper equipment aboard, and crew who are trained to carry out directed medical emergency procedures. If your CEO has a heart attack at 39,000 feet, it might take a while to find an airport, land and receive emergency medical attention. This is especially true over a remote area or on a transoceanic flight.

The difference between virtually immediate treatment by a crew member under the direction of an emergency-trained physician and treatment a half hour (or several hours) later can be the difference between the death of a valued executive or relatively minor incident both for the executive and the company.

The bottom line is that past performance is no guarantee of future results, but if an air charter company follows the highest industry standards of training and safety, it has a better chance of consistently safe flights than a company that doesn't. No successful company would consider an acquisition, plant purchase or upper management hiring decision without performing its due diligence and arranging the odds of success in its favor. It's only prudent to do the same before sending several of your senior managers to a meeting in a projectile traveling several hundred miles an hour at an elevation of 39,000 feet above the earth.

Alexander Beringer is director of operations and general manager of Fair Wind Air Charters in Stuart, Fla.

Questions to Ask Your Air Carrier ...           ... and Requests

Are you a certified Part 135 carrier? Is the    Copies of Air Carrier
specific aircraft booked Part 135 approved?     Certificate and D085 FAA
                                                Ops. Spec.
Does the charter company have current DOT       Copy of OST-4507 DOT
approval?                                       certificate
What is the total insurance coverage for the    Copy of Certificate of
aircraft?                                       Insurance
Have the pilots flying the trip received        Flight Safety,
simulator training for that aircraft in the     SimuFlite, or SimCom
past year?
Are the charter company, specific aircraft and  Date of last update or
specific pilots ARG/US and/or Wyvern approved?  audit
Have the company or the pilots had any          Request full
accidents, incidents or regulatory violations   explanation, if any
in the past five years?

Source: Beringer/Chief Executive