Areas served → United States
Helicopter charter in the United States
The US is the only market on this site where you can verify the company selling you a flight in about a minute, without asking them anything. That is not a small detail — it is the reason this site exists, and it is worth understanding before you book anywhere else.
Who regulates this: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). What a charter operator needs: An air carrier or operating certificate under 14 CFR Part 135 (commuter and on-demand operations). Can you check it yourself: Yes — Yes. The FAA publishes the complete list of Part 135 certificate holders and the aircraft on each certificate, updated weekly, as a downloadable file. That file is what this site is built from: 317 operators with helicopters and 1,263 airframes at the last import. If a company tells you they are certificated, the tail number they plan to fly you on should appear against their certificate — and if it does not, that is the conversation.
Commercial flying in the US divides on a line that catches people out: Part 91 versus Part 135. Part 91 is the general operating rules — how anyone flies an aircraft. Part 135 adds the rules that apply when you are carrying passengers for hire on demand: crew duty limits, maintenance programmes, operations specifications naming exactly what the operator may do and where, and a named FAA office holding the certificate. A privately owned helicopter flying its owner is a Part 91 flight. The same helicopter flying you for money is supposed to be a Part 135 flight, and the gap between those two sentences is what illegal charter is.
That gap is not a theoretical concern. The usual shape is not a villain, it is an aircraft owner or a management company taking revenue trips on an airframe that is not on a commercial certificate, under an arrangement that looks completely normal from the passenger seat. You will be handed the same kind of quote, meet the same kind of pilot and walk to a clean, expensive-looking helicopter. What differs is the maintenance regime behind it, the pilot’s duty limits, and whether your insurance means anything.
Because the FAA file is public, you can close most of that gap yourself. Ask for the operator’s legal name and their certificate designator — a four-character code the FAA assigns — and the tail number of the aircraft. Then check that the tail number is listed against that certificate. An operator who is doing this properly answers those questions immediately, because they get asked them by every corporate flight department they deal with.
Sightseeing is separately regulated. Commercial air tours fall under 14 CFR Part 136, the national air tour safety standards, and specific places have their own rules layered on top — the Grand Canyon has its own special flight rules area, and the airspace around New York is governed by a dedicated subpart of Part 93. A tour operator working in those places is flying to a rulebook that is public and specific, which again means you can ask precise questions.
One more thing you are owed, and it applies to us. When a broker arranges a single-entity charter, US Department of Transportation rules at 14 CFR Part 295 require the broker to disclose that they are a broker rather than the carrier, to identify the operator that will actually fly you, and to tell you the total cost on request. We say the same thing on every page of this site: we are not the air carrier, the operator is, and our fee is inside the price and disclosed if you ask.
The facts, with sources
| Regulator | Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) [1] |
|---|---|
| Charter rule | 14 CFR Part 135 — commuter and on-demand operations [2] |
| Non-commercial rule | 14 CFR Part 91 — general operating rules, not for hire [2] |
| Air tours | 14 CFR Part 136 — national air tour safety standards [2] |
| Public operator list | FAA Part 135 Operators and Aircraft list, published weekly [1] |
| Operators with helicopters in our import | 317 certificate holders [1] |
| Airframes in our import | 1,263 helicopters by tail number [1] |
| Broker disclosure rule | 14 CFR Part 295 — single-entity charter brokers [3] |
| What a broker must disclose | Broker status, the operator’s identity, and the total cost on request [3] |
| Landing sites in our data | 25,069 recorded in the US [4] |
What to ask before you fly
- Ask for the legal name on the certificate and the FAA certificate designator, then check the tail number you will fly on appears against it.
- Ask who holds operational control. If the answer is a management company or an aircraft owner rather than the certificate holder, keep asking.
- For a sightseeing flight, ask whether it is being flown under Part 135 or as a Part 136 air tour, and what that means for the route you are being sold.
- Ask any broker — including us — to confirm in writing that they are a broker, name the operator, and state the total cost. Part 295 says you are entitled to it.
Cities we have written up
- New York — New York is the most rule-bound helicopter market in the United States, and most of the frustration people have booking here comes …
- Miami — Miami charter is overwhelmingly about getting somewhere the road or the boat makes tedious — the Keys, a marina, an island, a …
- Las Vegas — Las Vegas runs the highest-volume helicopter tour operation in the United States, and it is the one city where the sightseeing market …
- Los Angeles — Los Angeles has more recorded landing sites than any city we hold data for — 226 under the city name alone — …
We write a city up when we have something specific to say about flying there — not because the name looks like a search term. We hold 25069 recorded landing sites in this country, and almost none of them belong on a page.
Sources
- FAA — Federal Aviation Administration
- eCFR — 14 CFR Part 135
- eCFR — 14 CFR Part 295, air charter brokers
- OurAirports landing-site data (public domain), as imported here
Facts on this page last checked 2026-08-12. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will correct it and note when.