Regulation
What Is a Part 380 Public Charter?
In short
Part 380 Public Charter is a United States Department of Transportation rule (14 CFR Part 380) that lets a company sell individual seats on a flight to the public, rather than chartering a whole aircraft. The flight itself is still flown by an FAA-certificated carrier under Part 121 or Part 135, which remains responsible for the operation.
How it works
Part 380 is a United States rule, found at 14 CFR Part 380, issued by the US Department of Transportation's Office of the Secretary. It creates a category called a "public charter operator": a company that assembles a charter flight and sells individual seats on it to unrelated members of the public, rather than one client or group chartering the whole aircraft.
The public charter operator files paperwork with the US DOT, sometimes called a public charter prospectus, setting out the route, the aircraft type and the terms of sale. It need not hold an FAA operating certificate of its own. The actual flying is done by a carrier that holds its own FAA certificate under 14 CFR Part 119, with authority to operate under 14 CFR Part 121 (the rule for scheduled and larger-aircraft carriers) or 14 CFR Part 135 (the rule for on-demand air charter). That certificated carrier, not the public charter operator, is the entity the FAA holds responsible for the safety of the flight.
This is different from ordinary on-demand charter, which this glossary describes under Part 91 vs Part 135. A client who charters a whole aircraft directly from a Part 135 certificate holder is not buying a Part 380 public charter at all; there is no seat-selling intermediary and no DOT filing involved, only the FAA's Part 135 rule.
In practice, Part 380 has been used by companies offering seats on fixed routes that look, to a passenger, like a scheduled airline service — booking a single seat online for a city-pair flight on a fixed schedule — while the aircraft is operated by a Part 135 or Part 121 carrier under contract. As of 28 September 2026, public charter rules, including their use for services that resemble scheduled airline service, have been the subject of recent rulemaking activity by United States federal regulators. The precise status of any proposal — whether it has been published, withdrawn or finalised, and what it would change — should be checked against the current Federal Register before being relied on, and this entry does not state a position on it.
Cost impact
Part 380 itself sets no fare and adds no fee; it changes how a flight is sold, not a specific line on an invoice. Its main effect on cost is that a passenger pays for one seat rather than for the whole aircraft, and the per-seat price depends heavily on how many seats the public charter operator manages to sell for that flight.
Suppose, for illustration, a public charter operator charters a small aircraft from a US Part 135 certificate holder for an illustrative flat cost of $6,000 for a round trip, and the aircraft has 30 seats. If all 30 seats sell, the illustrative average price per seat is $200. If only 15 seats sell, the same $6,000 aircraft cost is spread over half as many passengers, so the illustrative seat price rises to $400, or the public charter operator absorbs the shortfall. Load factor, not distance alone, is what moves the price a seat-buyer pays.
Because the public charter operator is a seller and organiser rather than the certificated carrier, a passenger's due diligence also shifts: safety oversight in the United States sits with the FAA-certificated carrier operating under Part 121 or Part 135, not with the brand selling the seat, so checking which carrier actually flies the route is part of the cost-versus-risk assessment rather than a fee.
Example
Suppose, for illustration, a company markets single-seat bookings between two regional airports in the United States, filed as a Part 380 public charter with the US Department of Transportation. The flying is performed by a carrier holding an FAA certificate under Part 135.
Suppose the underlying whole-aircraft charter cost for one round-trip flight is an illustrative $6,000, on a 30-seat aircraft. A passenger booking one seat when the flight is full might pay an illustrative $200. A passenger booking the same route on a flight that only fills half its seats might pay an illustrative $400 for an identical seat, because the fixed aircraft cost is shared among fewer buyers. In both cases the seat price the passenger pays, not a chartered aircraft's hourly rate, is what Part 380 changes.
Related terms
- Dry Lease vs Wet Lease
A dry lease provides an aircraft alone, so the lessee supplies its own crew and holds operational control, usually under its own Air Operator Certificate. A wet lease bundles crew, maintenance and insurance with the aircraft, and the lessor keeps operational control under its own certificate, which changes who is legally responsible for the flight.
- Part 91 vs Part 135
Part 91 and Part 135 are United States Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR) that distinguish private flying from commercial air charter. Part 91 covers an owner operating their own aircraft without compensation; Part 135 covers on-demand charter for hire, requiring an FAA Air Operator Certificate, stricter oversight, and federal excise tax on the fare.
- Empty Leg Flight
An empty leg flight is a one-way charter repositioning leg that an aircraft must fly with no paying passenger aboard, which an operator or broker then offers for sale at a reduced price. Because the aircraft is flying anyway, empty legs are typically priced well below a standard one-way charter, but the schedule and route are fixed, not chosen.