Source: www.nbaa.org, Editor, First Published October April 17th, 2026
As illegal aircraft charter activity grows more sophisticated through the use of technological tools, artificial intelligence – or AI – may prove to be a powerful new line of defense to help ensure charter operations are legal and in line with all safety regulations.
Recent news reports indicate that some aircraft operators are soliciting private groups on messaging apps to sell seats on charter flights. An illegal charter is defined as any flight for payment that lacks proper safety certifications.
“Illegal air charters pose a serious safety hazard to the traveling public,” an FAA spokesperson told NBAA. “It’s important that people verify the legitimacy of their charter operator before booking their flight, and the FAA has tools to help passengers do that.
“Legitimate charters require a higher level of FAA pilot training and qualification, aircraft maintenance and operational safety rules,” the spokesperson said. “Illegal charter operators do not follow these robust safety requirements.”
The Rapid Pace of Change
Ben van Niekerk, vice chair of NBAA’s Domestic Operations Committee, said digital communications have significantly impacted how business is done.
“Where, historically, it was who you knew, these apps have scale and speed and have grown exponentially over the past decade,” he said. “It can connect, for example, a user in Minneapolis with a provider in Florida instantly and secretively, and has spread like a wildfire.”
Jacob Baumler, founder and CEO of CoachAir Aviation Intelligence, summed up the challenge. “Illegal operators create three major risks: unsafe flights, liability exposure and reputational damage to the industry. These operators often cut corners on maintenance, pilot duty limits, and insurance,” Baumler said. “I have seen firsthand how hidden risks in charter operations create problems for passengers, operators and regulators.”
Baumler said AI can provide real-time transparency, stronger enforcement and faster response times. His company is developing a platform to validate each flight in real time by cross-checking FAA and DOT data, insurer databases, maintenance logs and operator records.
“Every decision is confirmed against source-of-truth data and produces regulator-ready audit trails,” he said. “On the financial side, escrow-backed payments will ensure that funds move only when compliance is verified. The goal is to prevent fraud, increase transparency, and reduce dispatch times from hours to minutes in critical missions.”
CoachAir’s platform is designed to cross-check operators, aircraft, crew qualifications and insurance before a flight can be booked. If information is missing or inconsistent, the system will flag the transaction and stop it.
“While no solution can remove every noncompliant operator, AI reduces the opportunities they exploit and makes fraud far more difficult while making compliance nearly automatic,” Baumler said.
Illegal charter is a problem of “epic proportion. … It costs the industry billions of dollars and puts lives at risk,” said Baumler. “By combining AI verification with escrow-backed payments, we are creating the backbone for a safer and more transparent industry.”
Baumler is confident adopters will gain a competitive advantage while regulators gain a much-needed enforcement tool. “The ultimate outcome is aviation that is safer, more trusted and more compliant,” he said.
Inadvertent Noncompliance
Operating legally isn’t easy, and operators can run afoul of regulations without noticing. “Firstly, some Part 91 operators might unintentionally cross into 135 territory and be noncompliant with regulations,” said van Niekerk.
“There has been a massive brain drain, and operators might have to rely on newcomers to aviation, lacking decades of experience to manage departments,” he said. “These new managers may lack the legal and compliance experience required to interpret rules, increasing inadvertent noncompliance.”
For those requiring assistance, van Niekerk said NBAA’s Domestic Operations Committee is ready, with effective tools and essential guidance. “NBAA’s annual Part 135 Flight Department Survey has time and again shown regulatory issues are where our members need the most help,” he said. FAA Using AI to ID NAS Risk
In general, the FAA says it’s taking a proactive approach to AI. “We are using machine learning and language modeling to scan incident reports and mine multiple data sources to identify themes and areas of risk,” an FAA spokesperson said.
Other applications include advanced analytics to evaluate risks in the National Airspace System. “We also are researching where AI could do more, such as using large-language models to process large text-based data sets,” said the spokesperson. “FAA subject matter experts are essential to our oversight and safety mission, and that will never change.”
Nonetheless, brokers “have no oversight or legally binding standards required of them, and as such these might have weak footprints, non-transparent money flows and therefore much reduced detectability,” said van Niekerk, who said he would like to see AI access public ADS-B records and compare flights to the FAA-certificated aircraft operators list.
“Suspicious activity can then be highlighted, and the FAA can zone in on these rogue operators, and act decisively when they are found to be non-compliant to regulations,” van Niekerk explained. “The FAA already has an FAA roadmap for artificial intelligence safety assurance, and perhaps such a system could be integrated into this approach. I would, however, love to see the private sector step in and provide such a service to the industry.”
