Crew duty limits and what you can actually sell

Demand is not what limits most regional charter days. Duty is. An operator who plans against the calendar without planning against the clock will overcommit and then cancel, which costs more than the job was worth.

Why duty binds earlier than people expect

It counts from reporting, not from take-off. The hour spent on paperwork, weather and preparation before the first flight is inside the day.

It includes the waiting. We quote waiting time and aircraft overnights at the destination: tell us whether you return the same day or the aircraft waits, and we include it in the price. A crew that holds four hours at a destination is on duty for those four hours, not resting.

And it includes the positioning. An empty leg back to base at 97.1 nautical miles from Tamarindo consumes duty exactly as a revenue leg does.

The result is that a day with three hours of flying can be a full duty day, and operators are routinely surprised by this the first time it bites.

The three patterns that waste duty

Early report, late first job. A crew that reports at six for a nine o'clock departure has lost three hours of the day to nothing.

Short hops with long gaps. Liberia to Tamarindo is 23.2 nautical miles. Three of those spread across a day consumes a whole duty period for very little flying.

And unplanned waiting. The job that was quoted as a drop-off and became a hold because the passenger's plans changed. That is the one that turns a compliant day into a cancelled second job.

It is also the one where saying no is hardest, because the passenger is standing in front of the crew asking for twenty more minutes. Decide the rule in advance so the crew is not negotiating it on an apron.

What it means with one crew

Your ceiling is fixed before any request arrives, and it is lower in high season, because more jobs per day consume duty faster.

Practically: one long day or two short ones, not both. A Drake Bay run at 83.5 nautical miles with a return and a wait is a day. Trying to add a third rotation to it is how operators end up making the wrong call at five in the afternoon.

What it means for what you sell

Quote the waiting explicitly, because it is duty and duty is your scarcest input.

Prefer one committed day over two half-days, when both are available. The coordination is lower and the duty consumption is lower.

And decline the third job. The revenue from it is visible; the cost of cancelling the second one at short notice is not, and it is larger.

Cancelled jobs do not cost you only that booking. They cost the counterparty's confidence, and in this market the counterparty is usually someone who sends repeat work.

The fix that costs least

Not a second crew. A stated cut-off time for accepting same-day work, published to your regular counterparties.

An intermediary or a lodge that knows you stop accepting at two o'clock stops asking at four, and you stop having the conversation where you are asked to do something you should not. The aircraft may need to reposition to the departure aerodrome, and that leg forms part of the quote. The specific aircraft is assigned on confirmation, based on passenger count, baggage and the destination field. Operators we bring on evidence current certification, insurance and fleet documentation before receiving a first assignment.

Frequently asked questions

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See also: Utilisation levers · Two-aircraft operator · Yield management · For operators · When to say no · Hiring and keeping pilots