Kentucky Jet Charter arranges retreat and offsite travel in both directions: teams flying in for bourbon country, the horse farms around Lexington or Derby week in Louisville, and Kentucky companies taking their people out of state. Either way, the job is to get the whole group to the venue together.
Bringing a team into Kentucky
Groups heading to bourbon country usually fly into Louisville or into Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, and Capital City Airport in Frankfort is another choice. Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries counted 2.7 million visits in 2025, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, so tours and tastings for a large group need booking well ahead. Teams staying near the horse farms can also use Georgetown-Scott County.
For a corporate hospitality group at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 1st, 2027, book the flight as soon as the invitations go out. Derby week is the busiest week of the year for private flights into Louisville.
Taking a Kentucky team out of state
Going the other way, Kentucky companies take their people to Florida, the Gulf Coast, the Caribbean or a ski town. If your staff are spread across Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky, we can pick them up at more than one airport, or schedule separate aircraft so that everyone lands at the destination together. For a winter trip, allow some extra time on the departure day, because ice and snow at home can mean de-icing before takeoff.
How many are coming, and which aircraft
A leadership team of up to eight usually fits a light or midsize jet. Groups of nine to sixteen generally need a super midsize or heavy jet, or two smaller aircraft flying together. These flights run under FAR Part 135, the FAA’s 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.
Send us the final headcount as early as you can, because the aircraft we can offer depend on it. Our VIP airliners page covers the larger company trips.
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.