The air taxi service is the parent of private jet charters of today. They were not as well organized as the private jets charters are today. They were usually single ownership aircrafts that were run as air taxis. They were also not quite as convenient as jet charters are today.

When air taxi service first started the safety of the flight depended entirely on the pilot skill. No special safety regulations and as a result there were accidents. The passengers flew at their own risk until the government formulated rules and regulations that the flights and made insurance mandatory. The pilots had to be certified by the FAA as competent. Aviation was finally taken as a serious business.

These small aircraft were 4-6 seaters and were the most popular for hauling passengers as well as cargo and mail. Most cities were connected by these air taxis. Back in 1936 a new air taxi was developed. The Dakota or DC-3 was built by Douglas Aircraft and capable of carrying 32 passengers. They have been used around the world ever since. The Dakota became the standard air taxi around the world until commercial flights became popular.

These air taxis would any destination that passengers wanted to reach and usually it was decided by the pilot when to start and how to get there because they had no set schedule. Of course, this all changed with the development of commercial aviation. Then an airline company would set up a daily schedule to connect various cities with fixed routes and rates. Even more elaborate safety precautions were taken to protect the passengers. Commercial flights for common while corporate jet charters before the business tycoons or big money earners.

I guess you could say that private jet charters and air taxis are related like a big family. You might consider a private jet charters as the grandchildren of air taxis. But today, aircraft charters are very different from the air taxis of yesterday.

Tags: Aircraft Charter, corporate jet charter, private jet charter

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Services, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.