A peak is not a good month with more bookings. It is a week where capacity, not demand, decides your revenue — which makes it the only period where the decisions have to be made in advance, because during it there is no time to make them.
Which peaks are actually real here
The dry season generally, which is long enough to be a season rather than a peak and should be planned as one.
Semana Santa, which is short, intense and compresses a month of demand into a week.
And the shoulder weekends either side of it, which operators consistently underestimate because they look like ordinary weeks on a calendar.
What is not a peak: most events. A conference or a tournament moves people to a city that already has scheduled service. It rarely produces charter demand, and building capacity around one is how operators end up with an empty aircraft and a paid crew.
The three decisions to make before
Which days you protect. In a peak, holding a day open for a probable multi-leg booking beats filling it with a short hop. A Liberia–Tamarindo at 23.2 nautical miles that blocks a day worth three rotations is a bad allocation at any rate.
Make it a rule rather than a feeling: only within the peak fortnight, only for days more than a week out. The specific aircraft is assigned on confirmation, based on passenger count, baggage and the destination field.
What you charge for 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. Peak itineraries involve holding more often, and an operator who has not priced it absorbs the difference at exactly the time the aircraft is most valuable.
And your same-day cut-off. Tell your counterparties before the week starts. A lodge that knows you stop accepting at two does not ask at four, and you do not have the conversation where somebody asks you to do something you should not.
The decision that has to be made during
When to stop taking work. Operators fill a peak week to the edge of duty and then lose a confirmed job to a delay with no slack to absorb it.
Leave one day unbooked in the middle. It feels like refusing money and it is insurance for the whole week — because the cost of a cancelled confirmed booking in a peak is not the booking, it is the counterparty who placed it.
What not to do with price
We show a "from" price per route; the final fare depends on the date, the group and the baggage, and is confirmed in writing before booking. Raising rates for a peak is defensible. Raising them for a client who books every year is not, and it is remembered in September when you want the work.
The peak is where a repeat relationship is tested. A San José–Tamarindo at 97.1 nautical miles quoted to a returning lodge at a peak premium buys one good week and costs a year.
What to do with the week after
Nothing, deliberately. A Drake Bay run at 83.5 nautical miles is available every week of the season; the peak week is not the only chance.
Operators come out of a peak having deferred maintenance, worked the crew hard and skipped the follow-ups. The week after is when the peak actually pays — the thank-you to the lodge, the invoice sent correctly, the aircraft looked at. Operators we bring on evidence current certification, insurance and fleet documentation before receiving a first assignment.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a real peak here?
The dry season as a season, Semana Santa, and the shoulder weekends either side that look ordinary on a calendar.
Are events a peak?
Rarely. They move people to cities with scheduled service, and building capacity around one produces an empty aircraft and a paid crew.
What do I decide before?
Which days you protect, what you charge for waiting, and your same-day cut-off.
What do I decide during?
When to stop. Leave one day unbooked in the middle; it is insurance for the whole week.
Should I raise rates in a peak?
Defensibly for new work. Not for a client who books every year — that buys one week and costs a year.
What about the week after?
That is when the peak pays: the follow-ups, the correct invoices, and the aircraft looked at.
Let us talk
Operators we bring on evidence current certification, insurance and fleet documentation before receiving a first assignment.