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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced its plans today to close a loophole that has allowed some public charter operators (like JSX) to operate under less stringent regulations than mainstream carriers. The elimination of this carve-out will shake the businesses of public charter operators flying aircraft with less than 30 seats.
JetSuiteX, Inc. is an American air carrier that operates in the United States and Mexico It’s described as a “hop-on jet service” that operates point-to-point flights in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Texas as well as Baja California Sur in Mexico.
It’s been around for a bit, but that might change soon if the FAA adjusts policy. This gets a little technical, but it’s important to understand the rules. Carriers operating public charters with aircraft holding up to 30 passenger seats operate under under 14 CFR Part 135 (this is meant for commuter and on-demand flights) while most other US airlines (even turbojets with as few as 10 seats) operate under 14 CFR Part 121 (which is for regularly scheduled flights). Part 135 rules are less strict than Part 121. They require first officers to only have 250 hours of flight time and pilots are not subject to a mandatory retirement age (which is currently 65 at other airlines).
The FAA solicited feedback on its plans to make a change back in August 2023 and received 60,000 comments with the bulk coming from the passengers of JSX and other charter operators. JSX claims that since there have been no accidents to provoke this change that it is coming as “the product of a full-bore lobbying campaign of misinformation and innuendo by some of the most powerful, entrenched airline industry interests.” This includes American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
The counter from the FAA is that it is doing this to simply manage risk as the number of passengers taking these public charter flights is increasing. It further states that from a customer perspective that many of these public charter flights are indistinguishable to a customer from a scheduled airline. The process for making this change includes the FAA proposing a new rule, giving the public 60 days to comment on it, and then a final rule will be issued along with a date set for its enactment.
FAA Administrator, Mike Whitaker, describes the agency’s actions as follows:
Part of the safety mission of the FAA is identifying risk early on, and that’s exactly what we’re doing on public charters as usage expands. If a company is effectively operating as a scheduled airline, the FAA needs to determine whether those operations should follow the same stringent rules as scheduled airlines.
At the same time, we want to look at how future innovation might cause us to think differently. Safe air travel options should be available to everyone, not limited to only those living near a major airport. We want to put a safety lens over the options of future innovation, as we work to further connect small and rural communities to open up more options for everyone at the same high level of safety.
The FAA is also going to create a Safety Risk Management Panel (SRMP) to evaluate the impact that this change could have on small and rural communities that rely on aircraft with 10 to 30 seats for service.
Anthony’s Take: It’s not looking good for JSX. There has been much criticism from the major airlines with American’s CEO being particularly vocal. We’ll see what the FAA decides and if this comes to be or gets tied up in tons of litigation and somehow doesn’t change.
(Featured Image Credit: JSX.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
3 comments
We need more airlines like JSX and fewer cattle cars like the oligarchies. For those of us with flying-related health issues. JSX is a dream come true.
You really haven’t given us any information about why being governed under 14 CFR Part 121 would be in any way detrimental to JSX compared to the regs it is currently governed by. What negative effects would 14 CFR Part 121 have on JSX’s current business model? What would they be forced to change that might “kill” their business? I don’t have any reason to doubt your conclusion, but you’ve left out some info a reader would need to get there.
Costs will go up because first officers will need 1500 hours I believe thus competing directly with the major airlines. Pilot pool will be less because a 66 year old with 10,000 hours of flying can’t fly for Delta but they can for JSX. Thus the pilots of JSK typically make less than mainline. Most importantly the security clearance requirements will be the same as mainline requiring TSA screening wich negates fully the benefit of JSX drive up and require JSK planes to board and deplane at the main terminals of airports and not the private terminals they currently serve from.. And finally some of JSX airports do not even have TSA checkpoint as they are small typically executive type airport thus requiring JSX to stop service from those airport completely.