Part 91 vs Part 135: is your flight a legal charter?

Most people booking a private flight never see the words “Part 91” or “Part 135”, and do not need to, as long as the flight is flown under the right one. When it is not, the passenger is often the last to know. This page explains the difference in plain terms, how to tell which rules your flight is under, and how to check the operator and the aircraft yourself with the FAA’s own tools.

Lombardi Jet Services is a broker, so the questions at the end apply to us as much as to anyone.

The short version

• Part 91 is private flying. It is the FAA’s general operating rulebook, and every aircraft follows it. On its own it does not allow a flight to be sold to the public.
• Part 135 is charter. An operator that sells flights holds an FAA air carrier certificate, with operations specifications that list each aircraft it may fly, and its pilots and aircraft meet extra requirements.
• The test is who controls the flight, and whether you are paying. If you pay for a flight that was offered to you, the company in operational control must hold a Part 135 (or Part 121) certificate; the seat counts that decide which are in our group charter article.
• You can check. The FAA publishes a weekly list of Part 135 operators and the aircraft on their certificates, searchable by operator name or registration number.
• A rating is not a certificate. ARGUS, IS-BAO and Wyvern audit operators that already hold one. None is an FAA approval.

What is the difference between Part 91 and Part 135?

Part 91 sets the general operating and flight rules for every civil aircraft in the United States, from a two-seat trainer to a corporate jet. Part 135 sets additional rules for commuter and on-demand operations by companies that hold, or are required to hold, an air carrier or operating certificate under Part 119. A charter flight you pay for is an on-demand Part 135 operation.

	Part 91	Part 135 on-demand charter
Who uses it	Owners, companies flying their own people, flight training, fractional programs (subpart K)	Companies selling flights to the public
Certificate needed	Pilot and aircraft certificates only	Air carrier certificate and operations specifications (Part 119), plus DOT economic authority
Can it be sold to the public?	No	Yes
Aircraft	Any aircraft the operator may lawfully fly	Only those listed on the certificate, maintained to its approved program
Pilot in command of a jet	Type rating	Airline transport pilot certificate, type rating, recurrent checks
Passenger briefing	Required in general terms	Oral briefing before each takeoff (135.117)

Private jet accident statistics sets out the extra pilot and operating requirements in more detail, with what the NTSB’s accident rates show for each.

Who has operational control of a charter flight?

The certificate holder. The FAA defines operational control as “the exercise of authority over initiating, conducting or terminating a flight” (14 CFR 1.1). On a legal charter, that authority sits with the Part 135 operator, which employs the pilots and answers to the FAA for the flight. Owning an aircraft is a different thing: the registered owner may have nothing to do with who operates it on a given day.

That is why the question “who is in operational control?” is the one that decides whether a flight is legal. A broker does not have it, and neither do you as a passenger. If anyone asks you to sign something that gives it to you, read the section on red flags below.

When does a flight have to be Part 135?

When it is common carriage: transport offered to the public, for pay. The FAA’s Advisory Circular 120-12A lists four elements: “(1) a holding out of a willingness to (2) transport persons or property (3) from place to place (4) for compensation.” Under 14 CFR 119.5, no one may operate as a direct air carrier without an appropriate certificate and operations specifications, and no one may even advertise such an operation without FAA authority.

Holding out does not need a billboard. The circular says it can be done “through the actions of agents, agencies, or salesmen”, and that “the fact that the holding out generates little success is of no consequence.” A broker selling seats on an owner’s Part 91 jet is holding out on the owner’s behalf. That is why the broker rules, 14 CFR 295.20, bar a broker from arranging flights with anyone who lacks both FAA safety authority and DOT economic authority.

Can money ever change hands on a Part 91 flight?

Yes, in narrow cases, which is where much of the confusion comes from. Under 14 CFR 91.501, the owner of a large or turbojet-powered multi-engine airplane may, without common carriage:

• Fly a company’s own people and guests on company business, charging no more than “the cost of owning, operating, and maintaining the airplane”.
• Time-share it. Lease the airplane with crew to another person or company, and charge only the expenses the rule lists: fuel (plus an additional charge of up to 100% of the fuel cost), crew travel, hangar away from base, insurance for the flight, landing fees, customs, catering, ground transport and flight planning.
• Interchange or share ownership under agreements with their own cost limits.

Fractional programs fly under Part 91 subpart K, with extra crew and management rules, for owners who hold at least a one-sixteenth share of an airplane.

None of these lets a stranger buy a trip at a market price. If you are paying a price for a trip someone offered you, and the flight is not on a Part 135 certificate, it is not one of these arrangements.

How do you check that a charter operator is legal?

Four steps. Each uses a public FAA tool or a question the operator should answer without hesitation.

1. Get the operator’s name. A broker must give you the corporate name of the operator in operational control, and any other names it trades under, before you contract (14 CFR 295.24). An operator selling direct will give it to you on the quote.
2. Find it on the FAA’s Part 135 list. The FAA publishes a spreadsheet of “FAA-certificated Aircraft Operators (Legal Part 135 holders)”, which it says is updated weekly and “searchable by operator name or aircraft registration number (N-Number)”. On November 2, 2026 it listed 1,791 operator names and 11,518 aircraft.
3. Check the aircraft is on that operator’s certificate. Ask for the registration number (the N-number on the side of the aircraft) and find it in the same spreadsheet, against the same operator. Under 14 CFR 119.49, a certificate holder may not use an aircraft that is not listed in its operations specifications. The FAA calls this the D085 listing.
4. Ask to see the certificate. The FAA’s own advice to charter customers is to “ask to see the Operator’s Air Carrier or Operating Certificate to validate that the aircraft has authorization for charter use”, and to find another operator if it refuses.

For more detail on an operator, the FAA’s AVInfo air operator search shows a certificate holder’s certificate number, issue date and address, searchable by name or by the name it does business as.

Two cautions. The spreadsheet is a strong check, not the last word: the FAA took it offline for several months in 2026 to correct data errors, and some registration numbers appear more than once. If an operator or aircraft is missing, the FAA says to contact your local Flight Standards District Office. And the FAA aircraft registry, which shows who owns an aircraft, cannot tell you who operates it: there is no operator field.

What are the warning signs of an illegal charter?

The FAA lists these on its page for people thinking of chartering an aircraft:

• You are asked to take operational control. The company “provides the aircraft and at least one crewmember, yet attempts to transfer operational control to a consumer via any document”. The FAA also warns of the “sham dry lease”: separate contracts for the aircraft and the pilot.
• No federal excise tax on the invoice. “Legitimate operators have to charge this.”
• No safety briefing, or no briefing cards.
• Evasive answers to questions about the certificate or the aircraft.
• Coaching. Someone tells you what to say “if an FAA aviation inspector meets the aircraft at its destination”.

The FAA’s enforcement page lists proposed civil penalties for alleged illegal charter flying, the largest $5.89 million in 2020, and two certificate revocations. How to spot a private jet charter scam covers the commercial tricks that sit alongside these: switched aircraft, fees that appear later, empty legs that were never confirmed.

What do ARGUS, IS-BAO and Wyvern add?

An independent look at how a certificated operator manages safety, on a date. Each runs a different program:

• ARGUS rates operators from a remote audit (Gold) to a two-day on-site audit (Platinum) and continuous monitoring (Platinum Elite).
• IS-BAO, from the International Business Aviation Council, is a safety-management standard with three stages, from an established safety management system to one fully integrated into the business.
• Wyvern runs audits against its Wingman standard. Its “Registered” listing is not an audit, and Wyvern says it “does not constitute a safety certificate”.

What none of them can do: replace the FAA certificate, certify a particular flight or tail number, or prevent an accident. Under 14 CFR 295.50, a broker may not claim that the operator on your flight meets an auditor’s standard unless it does. ARGUS, Wyvern and IS-BAO ratings explained goes through each program.

What to ask before you book

The questions below turn the rules into something you can check. Ask them of any broker or operator, and expect the answers in writing. You can tick them off, copy them into an email or print them.

How Jake works

Jake is a broker and acts as his clients’ agent. He arranges flights only with Part 135 certificate holders rated ARGUS Gold or Platinum, confirms the rating for the specific operator before quoting, and names the operator and the aircraft in the quote. He deals with the certificate holder itself, not with a reseller. Every question above is one he expects to be asked.

For the accident in Palm Beach County on November 1, 2026, the NTSB has not stated whether the flight was operated under Part 91 or Part 135; our explainer sets out what is known. The FAA’s Part 135 list shows the jet on a charter certificate, which does not settle how that flight was flown; the elevator finding and who operated the jet are covered on their own page.