Illegal charter flights are increasingly common, according to operators and brokers who spoke to AIN, most of whom declined to go on the record with specific accusations, but agreed that the practice is especially prevalent in emerging markets such as Russia and that, generally, the authorities are not doing enough to police the situation.
Essentially, there are two categories of illegal charter. The first, and most serious, occurs when flights on privately owned aircraft are offered for financial gain despite the fact that they are not registered under a commercial air operator’s certificate (AOC). Another breach of the rules occurs when aircraft registered outside a market–most often in the U.S. or offshore registrations such as the Cayman Islands–are offered for hire in a market, such as Europe, where they are not entitled to fly commercially without permission.
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