Charter Flights Could Be the Answer to Endless Delays

As the airport security began unrolling every sock in his 16-year-old son's luggage, Sam Davis began to wonder whether flying commercial carriers was worth the aggravation. More than an hour later, when father and son emerged from security after being searched, questioned and probed, Davis had his answer.

"I was willing to pay almost any price to avoid doing that ever again," said Davis, the retired CEO of Liqui-Box, an Ohio packaging company. "I have a 16-year-old, a 14-year-old and a 2-year-old, and going through security is an utter disaster every time. It's like a circus act."

The next time, Davis bypassed the major airlines and booked a charter flight for his family, just like he did as a corporate executive. Instead of driving an hour to fly from the large airport in Tampa, Fla., Davis called a local charter operator and booked a flight from a small airstrip near his home. Then he drove over and walked directly on the plane -- no waiting, no baggage check, no security hassles.

"I've been doing charters for about a year," Davis said. "This year we're going to use it to see some Ohio State football games. And I may fly my family down from Ohio, which is great, because they live in three different places and I can pick them all up."

The Rise of the Leisure Charter

Davis is not alone. More leisure travelers take charter flights, and more charter operations are springing up. Today, more than one-quarter of charter traffic comes from leisure travel. Indeed, light jet traffic, the bread and butter of the leisure charter world, was up more than 50% during the first quarter of 2002, according to the Air Charter Guide, which tracks the industry.

"I think it's safe to say that people have become very disenchanted with regular service airlines and are looking for ways to avoid it at all costs," said Christopher Elliott, editor of Elliott.org, a consumer travel Web site.