For decades, airlines have treated passenger charter flights as an afterthought. Scheduled flights have always dominated airline strategy, leaving commercial charter operations overlooked as a key driver of profitability.
But the reality is that charter offers something airlines will never see with their core business: the ability to sell fully prepaid flights with no marketing costs. In an industry where yield management is everything, selling guaranteed capacity without spending on customer acquisition should be an absolute priority. So why hasn’t it been?
The problem isn’t a lack of demand. The global commercial charter market is worth over €100 billion annually. Group travel, corporate incentives, and major events create significant demand, often outside traditional flight schedules. The real issue is that airlines have never had the right insights to truly understand this demand and optimise their operations accordingly. Unlike scheduled flights, which are backed by decades of historical data, charter flights exist in a blind spot.
The commercial charter market remains stuck in decades-old, manual workflows. In many cases, a single transaction requires hundreds of emails between airlines and travel buyers, with pricing and availability determined through slow, labour-intensive exchange of information.
For an industry that thrives on operational efficiencies, the fact that this market remains untouched by digitalisation is nothing short of astonishing. Commercial charter has been, and still is, the last bastion of non-digitalised travel bookings.
Most airlines have no centralised way of tracking incoming charter enquiries or analysing patterns in demand. Instead of building a long-term strategy for passenger charter through structured forecasting, they are forced to rely on reactive sales tactics.
Without structured data, airlines are operating in the dark. Thousands of charter requests are made every week, but since there’s no standard way of tracking and analysing this information, they have so far missed out on decades of valuable insights that could have reshaped the role charter plays in their operations.
Of course, airlines can report on the charter flights they have sold. But they have little visibility into how much demand they failed to capture. This lack of historical data means they can’t accurately predict when, where, or how much charter demand will emerge in future seasons. Opportunities are slipping through the cracks.
Other segments of the industry have successfully embraced digitalisation. The cargo sector, for example, has transformed in recent years with digital booking platforms and dynamic pricing, enabling airlines to maximise efficiency and profitability.
Yet, selling commercial charter flights still requires spreadsheets and email chains. The inefficiencies and opaque processes in this space are far more than a logistical problem. Without a digital-first, data-rich ecosystem for charter, airlines will never be able to leverage charter flights as a real strategic asset.
With modern digital tools, airlines could integrate passenger charter flights into their commercial strategy in a far more intelligent way. Instead of treating charter enquiries as last-minute opportunities, they could proactively anticipate demand, analyse booking trends, and adjust their fleet allocation accordingly.
They could even identify high-demand routes outside their scheduled network and build on this insight to make smarter operational decisions. By enhancing charter flight distribution with automation, transparency, and structured data, airlines could gain full visibility into a market they’ve sidelined for decades.
For those willing to rethink their approach, commercial charter flights could be more than an afterthought. They could become a core part of the business – one that not only delivers higher yields but also improves overall fleet utilisation. The shift won’t happen overnight, but one thing is certain: the tools to modernise charter flight sales already exist. It’s up to airlines to start using them.
