Fly Alliance eliminates sliding departures on peak days

Peak day sliding departures are going away for Fly Alliance jet card customers in 2024.

The top 20 private jet charter/fractional private jet operator is changing their peak day calendar strategy.

There were 57 peak days this year, down from 93 peak days in 2022.

The peak days carry a 15% surcharge.

For 2024, customers who buy at least 50 hours will see the number of peak days drop to 33 dates.

On the flip side, 25-hour jet cards now carry 77 peak days.

According to the Private Jet Card Comparisons database of over 80 providers and more than 1,000 options, the average number of jet card peak days dropped to 50.3 in the latest period from 51.2 days in June.

No Sliding Departures

Fly Alliance President Christopher Tasca says the standard +/- 3-hour sliding departures on peak days are being removed for new contracts.

The peak day sliding departures enable providers to move departure time for operational reasons on high-demand dates.

While providers say they rarely use the clause, many flyers dislike sliding departures.

During the Covid surge in demand, some providers gave themselves the ability to move departures by up to 24 hours.

Currently, sliding departures mainly range from +/- 2 hours to +/- 4hours.

Fly Alliance 2024 Pricing

Separately, Fly Alliance said it plans a rate hike for 2024.

Its current light jet hourly rate is $7,680, including a 10% fuel surcharge and 7.5% Federal Excise Tax.

At the end of Q3, the industry average was $8,093 per hour.

The 2019 start-up recently announced it would provide supplemental lift with its large cabin Gulfstream fleet for Volato’s G280 fractional program and access to the Honda Jet operators Insider jet card program.