Fly Legal Day – 21 January 2022

For many years The Air Charter Association has campaigned to raise awareness of and for legislation changes to be made to combat illegal charter flights. The Association’s core values centre on upholding the highest standards, trust, professionalism and above all else, safety.  This is why using one of our trusted member companies ensures you will avoid unknowingly travelling on an illegal charter flight and avoid putting you or your clients at significant risk.

On 21 January 2019 the Premiership footballer Emiliano Sala and his pilot tragically lost their lives when the aircraft crashed into the English Channel. This was an illegal charter flight.

In memory of this fatal accident and to continue our efforts to widen awareness and ultimately reduce illegal charter activity, we have designated 21 January “Fly Legal Day”.  We are asking all our members and industry colleagues around the world to unite in spreading the word and to shine a light on this illicit practice with the hope of preventing any future tragedy.

Join us on social media on 21 January to show your support and help travellers recognise the dangers.

Members have been sent an email with our poster, to share with your colleagues in advance. We have also produced a media pack with an infographic for social media that you can add your logo to and use along with our recommended posts to easily create your own ‘Fly Legal Day’ social media posts.

Please include hashtag #flylegalday and #theaca in all your posts.

An illegal charter is an unlicensed aircraft charter operation – one where the operator does not have an AOC (Air Operator Certificate) and is operating a private aircraft for which the operator, aircraft owner and/or pilot(s) is not legally allowed to accept payment for their flying or aircraft. Although uncommon, regrettably illegal charters do occur and it is a very dangerous practice.

Legitimate, licensed, regulated and fully legal commercial operators and pilots spend huge amounts of time and financial resource to minimise the risk involved in every commercial flight. They are also subject to rigorous safety oversight by national authorities. They must adhere to a strict set of regulations including specific standards for aircraft maintenance, flight operations, ground operations, crew experience and training and increased insurance, all of which protect the safety of passengers and crew.

This level of oversight and safety management simply does not exist with private flights and this is why the distinction between private flights and commercial operations exist – to protect fare-paying passengers who expect the highest standards.

To understand more, please visit our webpage on Illegal Charter.

Thank you for your support in this extremely important campaign, to raise awareness of and prevent illegal charter.