One charter flight in ten runs into trouble.
This page says what happens then.
Nobody in our industry writes this page, and we understand why: it is frightening to read before you sign. But what they do not tell you now, you find out on the day of departure, suitcase in hand — and by then there is nothing left for you to decide. Here you will find what can go wrong, who pays, how long it takes and what we do about it. With nothing sweetened.
Charter, jet card and fractional share are not the same thing when the aircraft breaks
This is the point where charter loses, and it is right that you should know it before you choose. Anyone who has bought a fractional share or a jet card is recovered by their own programme without paying a euro more: they have other aircraft and they send one. Anyone buying a single flight, on the other hand, gets a new quotation for the replacement aircraft — which almost always costs more, because it is last minute.
It is not a choice of ours and it is nobody's malice: it is the way the market is built. An intermediary owns no aircraft, so it cannot promise to replace them. What we can do, and do, is tell you beforehand, look for the replacement while you are still at home and not at the airport, and offer you the cover that buys this risk out — you will find it further down.
What can happen, in order of how often it happens.
The aircraft develops a technical fault
A fault on the ground stops the flight and the aircraft goes AOG: it happens on roughly one charter in ten. From that moment a replacement is looked for on the market. If one is found, the price is the price of that day — almost always higher. If none is found, the flight is refunded. We know about it before you do, because we look at the status of the aircraft the evening before and again that morning.
The weather says no
The captain decides, and that decision is not for sale. The helicopter stops before the jet does: strong wind, low cloud, poor visibility. Almost always the time moves, not the date — but in winter in the Alps, with the easterly Föhn closing Sion, it can be the last leg that goes rather than the flight. That is why the road plan is always in place.
There is no slot
At coordinated airports the slot time is assigned by the national coordinator under published rules: it cannot be bought and it cannot be jumped. At Geneva, from 15 December to the end of April, PPR is required inbound and outbound and the slot is booked a maximum of 21 days ahead; at Chambéry, on the changeover Saturday, arrivals are five an hour in total. If only an awkward window is left, you fly in it or you move the day.
The crew is out of duty hours
Pilots have duty-hour limits set by law, and nobody may waive them: not the operator, not you, not us. If your delay or a change of plan pushes them over, the flight slips to the next day. It is the rule that has held the safety of this trade together for fifty years.
You are the one who arrives late
Up to 45 minutes late you are charged nothing: that is our partner's standard margin. Beyond that, it depends on the slot and on the crew, and it can turn into a cost. If you know you are running late, one message changes everything: with half an hour's notice the slot time can often be moved, at the last moment it cannot.
You are the one who cancels
The cancellation charges rise as departure approaches and reach 100% in the last 24 hours. They are in the table below, in full. Before you sign we look for the widest cancellation terms the operator offers on that route, and we put them in writing for you.
What cancelling costs, day by day.
These are the standard terms of the operating partner, with whom you sign the contract of carriage. On particular routes and with particular operators they can change: the real ones for your route we write into the quote, before you confirm.
| When you cancel | What is retained | What is worth doing |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 24 hours, or you do not turn up | 100% | At this point you may as well fly anyway, or send somebody else: passenger names can be changed until shortly before departure. |
| From 24 to 72 hours before | 75% | If the reason is the forecast, wait: a cancellation by the operator for weather carries no charge. |
| From 3 to 7 days before | 50% | This is the window where moving the date beats cancelling: a change of date can be negotiated, a cancellation cannot. |
| From 7 to 14 days before | 30% | Call us before you cancel. On some routes the aircraft can be placed elsewhere and the charge comes down. |
| More than 14 days before | 10% | The cost of having held the aircraft standing. It is the reason booking early pays anyway. |
Percentages of the value of the flight, read on the partner's general terms on 14 August 2026. The balance is due five working days before departure; payment by card carries a 4% surcharge.
Three lines of the contract
that almost nobody reads.
They are in the general terms you accept when you sign with the operating partner. We did not write them and we cannot change them: what we can do is make sure you know them beforehand, and not afterwards.
- The aircraft named is not binding. At booking you choose a model, but the operator may put up another one of the same category and the same standard, with no change to the price either way. That is why, when we quote, we think in terms of category and not registration — and when somebody promises you one precise aircraft, they are promising something that does not depend on them.
- If the flight is lost to a technical fault, nobody guarantees the replacement. The contract says the operator is not liable if it cannot find another aircraft for the same day and the same time, nor for any additional costs.
- The alternative aircraft is paid for by you. The repair is not, that one is the operator's. But the cost of sourcing the replacement aircraft falls on the client. It is exactly the risk the cover below is there to close.
We cannot spare you the things that go wrong.
We can keep you from being alone in them.
We tell you while you can still decide
- The quote carries the cancellation terms for your route, not a generic reference to an annex.
- We tell you if the date you have chosen falls in a difficult window — Christmas, New Year, World Economic Forum week, the February changeover Saturdays — and how much moving it would change.
- If the category you have in mind is bigger than you need, or if it is worth waiting a day, we say so. It earns us less.
One person, and they answer
- From the moment payment for your first flight is confirmed you have a personal, direct number, reachable twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Not a switchboard: the person who handled your flight.
- If something changes you hear it from us, not from the departures board. At night as well, and even when the news is bad.
- While we are looking for the replacement you call nobody: we call you, and we tell you what there is and what it costs, not “we are still checking”.
Now you know what the others
let you find out afterwards.
If you have reached the bottom of this page and still want to fly with us, that is the reason we wrote it. The quote commits you to nothing, asks for no deposit and signs you up to nothing.