scheduled flights.. run all year usually set times from a limited number of airlines [dependent where you are going]

Charter flghts.... are those used by tour operators during the holiday season they may be owned by the TO or seats
purchased from an external source.

charters often referred to as cattle class are relatively cheap but that is reflected in service/legroom etc

we often use charters [on flights under 5 hrs] its not worth the extra expense for more leg room [unless you are very tall] on a short flight

if you are of shall we say an expansive build your stuck because seat width doesn't vairy much

remember FAA rules dictate any person occupying an exit row set must be over 18 yrs know how to operate the doors and physical fit

One difference that stands out on this board is that Charter flights booked well in advance are more liable to being changed than scheduled, presumably because if the Tour company paying for 75% of the seats decides it needs to change to fit the hotel plan it has more leverage than the 25% of DIYs at the back! Another is that Charters seem to have longer checkin deadlines than scheduled at the same airports.

If there is a problem regarding take off and landing slots, scheduled flights tend to get preference. Charters often have the unpopular late night and early morning slots. Oh and if the airport where you are flying to/from is the home base of any particular airline, they often get priority over any other flights, chartered or scheduled!

Not always the case- Charters of late seem to be getting more legroom than scheduled, are reducing their night time flying programmes and offering superior service- more drinks service more meal options and additional options to pre book- the only difference is charter has a very low starting cost and if you want all of their services means you pay probably the equivlent to scheduled- but if you do not want everything then you pay less- sort of pay what you use type operations.

Charter is now no longer the poor relation it used to be.

I'm not saying the posters/people on here have invalid responses regarding poorer service- we all have our experience's with different airlines and you may have had a bad experience the last time you flew with Thomas cook, just as I did with Virgin Atlantic- it doesn't mean because it was Virgin it was a one off or Thomas cook "the norm"

What is the difference between charter flights and schedule flights ,
i have just looked on the bristol airport website and booking in times vary by 1 hour
3hours for charter 2 hours for schedule

Lynne

Hi Lynne .. I have merged your enquiry with this previous topic about the differences between scheduled and chartered.

David

Hello Lynne,

The main difference between charter and scheduled flights is:-

Chater Flights - These are aircraft which have been booked by tour operators and therefore you can only buy these seats from the tour operator and not direct with the airlines.

Schedule Flights - These are aircraft which the airline are selling off their own back and seats are normally sold directly between an airline and the customer. You can book most flights with an agent but your contract is still with the airline, whereas if you booked a charter flight yur contract would be with whichever tour operator you booked you flight with.

Scheduled and Charter does Not have an baring on how much leg room or what kind of service is offered as this is completely up to the airline. The difference is just the way the seats are sold.

Thanks
Mark

Technically a scheduled airline is one where the airline runs services simply for the purpose of flying people around and publishes a schedule (or timetable as we would normally call it). Basically they are acting like an ordinary train company would. The range of service could be anything from Ryanair to British Airways First Class (and Concorde in the past).

A charter airline does business by getting someone else, usually a holiday company, to ask them to arrange a flight and take a load of their passengers. If you had say 150 relatives and friends and wanted to take them away somewhere (maybe you'd won a Euromillions roll over!) you could go to a charter airline and ask them for a plane at the time to suit your plan.

Things get a bit more complicated though.

First, some holiday companies selling specialist packages with small numbers of passengers may book them onto a scheduled flight.

Second, there is quite a bit of space swapping within the charter business. One tour operator may book a plane and then get another to take some space on it. The airline may even be owned by one tour operator but sell space to a competitor. And tour operators may charter planes from an airline which normally runs scheduled services - BMI still does a fair bit of charter work. Depending on availablity the airline used could vary for the same holiday on different dates. And it's not unknown for airlines to sub-charter adding more confusion. I've got a colleague who booked a holiday with a big name operator to Tenerife last year. When the tickets came the flight code showed it was operated by Air Malta and when he got to the airport he found it had been sub-chartered to a Latvian company!

Third, tour operators can offload excess capacity to DIY travellers, sometimes directly through their website and frequently through ticket agents. This means you can buy a cheap ticket to a bulk holiday destination from what could be a one man business and be told you're flying with a certain company, but that could be a tour operator with no planes who has chartered one from someone else. But it could be that the agent specialises in a certain area, usually in the long haul market, and because they have such buying power some scheduled airlines will do a bulk purchase deal allowing discounted prices to be offered.

What you get for your money tends to depend on the airline rather than whether it's a scheduled or charter service.

Back to your question about checkin times. The times you quote are probably when the desks open - I find it hard to believe that a scheduled airline has a minimum of 2 hours at Bristol. The real question to ask is when does check in close.

Ask yourself these questions at any given airport:

How long does it take to check someone in (read ticket, check passport, weigh bag, issue boarding card, send bag down chute)?
How long does it take to catch bag , X ray it, put it on trolley?
How long does it take for passenger to walk from checkin through security to gate?
How long does it take for the complete set of passengers to file through the gate onto plane whilst bags are loaded into hold?

Whatever the answer to those questions, how at the same airport with the same type of plane can it take wildly different amounts of time depending on how they bought their tickets??? Logically it shouldn't - but it does!! Basically, a scheduled flight is operated for the benefit of the passengers, on charter it's for the benefit of the tour company who have the additional concerns of rounding up people within the right groups to tie in with coach transfers etc.

So if you are a tour customer booked on scheduled you get the benefit of their slickness (in comparison!) but if you're a DIY traveller booked into a spare seat on a charter you have to put up with the tour company hassle.

thanks for your replies, i will have to wait for my tickets now
to see what time i have to be at the airport .

Lynne.

This seams to be a rather confusing issue for many people (me included) so would someone like to explain what the differences are and how affects things like -

changing of the booking - because you need to?
changing of the booking - because the operator needs to?
Booking of extra legroom/seating together?
Inflight meals / drinks?
Buying of products (watches, model planes, perfume etc)?
Booking in times?
Baggage allowance?
Insurance cover (regarding to cancelled/changed flights etc is it different lengths of time etc for each type)?
space and size of seating ?
flight times? (wondering if different aircraft used and faster/slower flying times)
cost ?
and anything else that might change that I haven't thought of !

thanks

Steve

AskCy,

A Scheduled Flight Is One Where You Book (Normally Direct With An Airline) And The Flight Runs Like A Bus Service, To A Timetable, For Extra legroom seats/ Seating Together / Booking Inflight Meals, You Contact The Airline Direct

Charter Flights Are Normally Sold By Tour Operators. (eg On The Beach/Direct Holidays) Therefore Any Enquiries For Extra legroom seats/ Seating Together / Booking Infliuht Meals Should Be Made To The Tour Operator

Buying Of Products - Same For Both Charter And Scheduled Flights
Buying Drinks/Snaks - Same For Both Charter And Scheduled Flights
Checking In Times - Same For Both Charter And Scheduled Flights
Space And Size Of Seating - Same For Both Charter And Scheduled Flights (Same Aircraft Used For Both)
Flight Times - Same For Both Charter And Scheduled Flights (Flights Can't Be Made To Go Slower For One Option)
Cost - Can Vary
Baggagge Allowance - For Scheduled Flights See The Airlines Website, For Charter Flights It Is Whatever Your Tour Operator Stated, Or What Is Stated On Your Ticket

Hopefully I Have Covered Most Things

Gower

thanks for that....

So would I be right in thinking you could be on a chartered flight thats part of an actual scheduled aircraft ?

Steve

AskCy,

Some airlines, for example Monarch operate a scheduled service and use those flights for package holidays. Although it's not a charter flight by nature, they are very similar. The main difference between a scheduled and charter flight is the booking process as mentioned above. There used to be a clear distinction between scheduled and charter carriers, but they've diversified a little so the gap has closed.

Darren