An often repeated trope within the jet charter industry is that a good private jet broker is like gold, and a bad one is like lead – it can weigh you down and potentially be poisonous.
With literally hundreds of brokers out there, how can separate the good from the bad?
1. Ask For Recommendations
Sadly, the private jet brokerage industry itself is largely unregulated. Whilst operators are regulated by organizations like the FAA (USA), CAA (UK) or EASA (EU), brokers are not.
As such, brokers range vary from “Yale to Jail” as an old industry saying goes. Some (most) are well-established and knowledgeable, however there are a few who know very little or are straight up scams.
So this is where recommendations come from.
If you are in the position to even consider chartering a private jet, chances are that you’ll have friends, colleagues, neighbors or at least someone you know, who has chartered a private jet in the past.
Many of them will likely have tried a few brokers and/or brokerages before settling on one they like, so will likely be able to give you a few recommendations based on who they’ve used before.
But you should go beyond this. You should ask them what they did well and especially what they did not so well. Whilst very few brokers will get everything right 100% of the time, you’d probably want to know at this stage before it potentially causes you an issue.
If one is particularly appealing, ask for the broker’s contact details or for your friend/colleague/neighbor to make an introduction.
2. Conduct Your Own Research
But recommendations are only one side of the coin. You should want to make sure that the broker or brokerage house (if applicable) is both reputable and financially secure – you don’t want them going under and taking your money with them.
To maximize your odds of picking the perfect broker(age), you should ideally look into both the brokerage and the broker themselves.
Don’t just read their website. Look at reviews left by