Kentucky Jet Charter arranges flights for sports teams traveling into and out of Kentucky, from high school and club programs to college, semi-professional and professional teams. Your staff should be thinking about the next game, so we handle the search for the aircraft and keep you updated as the trip comes together.
Working with coaches and travel staff
We work directly with head coaches, directors of operations, travel coordinators and their assistants. Send us the schedule, the size of the traveling party and the cities involved, and your advisor will come back with aircraft options for each leg. For a small group of coaches or staff, a light or midsize jet often makes sense. A full roster with staff usually needs something much larger.
Roster size and the rules that apply
Most private charter flights operate under FAR Part 135, the FAA’s set of rules for on-demand, for-hire charter. Once the group runs past nineteen passengers, the trip calls for an airliner-size aircraft and no longer falls under FAR Part 135. Those flights operate under FAR Part 121 or a foreign equivalent, which generally carries stricter crew and operating requirements than both Part 91 and Part 135. Give us the full headcount early, including trainers, equipment managers and anyone else traveling with the team.
Equipment and winter travel
Bags, uniforms, medical kits and team equipment take up a lot of room and add a lot of weight. Send us the equipment list with the passenger count, so the aircraft we quote has room for all of it. Basketball season runs from November to March, which is also when Kentucky sees its ice and snow. A winter departure out of Louisville or Lexington, Kentucky, may need de-icing, so we build some extra time into the schedule and stay in touch with the operator about the forecast.
Planning a full season
We can arrange a single trip on short notice, subject to scheduling and aircraft availability, or plan around a whole season. If you send us the season schedule early, we can look at aircraft and crews for every road trip at once. We can also arrange group flights for boosters, sponsors and fans. For a full roster, take a look at the VIP airliners we arrange for group travel.
Vetting Behind Every Trip
Every operator, aircraft, and crew goes through our internal due diligence before we present any options. Our internal standards meet or exceed what the FAA requires:
- FAR Part 135 charter operators for traditional private aircraft, or FAR Part 121 for airliner-size and group trips (or the foreign equivalent on international legs)
- Operator subscription to Wyvern and ARGUS reviewed where the operator participates.
- Pilot experience and operator incident history reviewed before we recommend an aircraft.
- Fewer than 60 brokers worldwide hold Premium Wyvern Broker Member status, and Air Charter Advisors is one of them.
Kentucky-Specific Patterns We Plan Around
Kentucky’s busiest weeks follow the racing calendar. The Kentucky Oaks and Derby fill Louisville on the first weekend of May, and Keeneland’s spring and fall meets and its horse sales bring owners and buyers into Lexington, so those dates book first, and the FAA manages arrivals into the Louisville airports during Derby week. The rest of the year, flights leave the state for business, for Florida in the winter and for family vacations. Most Louisville trips use Louisville Muhammad Ali International or Bowman Field, Blue Grass Airport in Lexington sits across the road from Keeneland, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International in Hebron serves the north of the state, and Bowling Green, Owensboro and Paducah cover the south and west. Ice and snow in the winter and strong spring thunderstorms are the weather we watch most often.
Contact
For a quote on a Kentucky charter, send the trip through our contact page or call an advisor at 1-888-987-5387. Our safety page sets out how we review operators and crews, and the aircraft gallery covers every category we arrange. We are also a member of the National Business Aviation Association.