San Francisco Jet Charter arranges passenger flights across eleven aircraft categories, from single-engine piston aircraft up to VIP airliners. Which one suits a trip out of the Bay Area comes down to four things: how many are traveling, how far you are going, what is traveling with you, and what the operator can do at both airports on the day.
Start With the Trip, Not the Aircraft
Most people call in with a specific aircraft in mind and it is usually not the one they end up flying on. Tell us the route, the dates and the passenger count instead, and your advisor will narrow the options and send you a short list that fits. That conversation takes a few minutes and generally saves money.
Short-haul trips dominate this market. The corridors that come up week after week out of San Francisco are Southern California, Las Vegas, Seattle, Scottsdale and Reno, all of them one to two hours in the air. That puts very light jet, light, super light and midsize jets at the center of what we arrange rather than at the bottom of the list.
Where the Categories Divide
Piston aircraft and turboprops reach the shorter and unpaved fields that jets cannot use, which matters for Sierra, Central Valley and north state trips. Super midsize jets are usually the smallest aircraft that cross the country nonstop from here. Heavy and long range jets handle Hawaii, the Pacific and Europe, which is a real advantage from this coast. Helicopters cover the short Bay Area movements when driving is not the ideal option.
Trips into the Sierra work differently from trips of the same length elsewhere. Mountain airports sit at high elevation, and air density, altitude and terrain determine the aircraft choice far more than the distance does.
Group Size Changes the Rules
Above nineteen passengers a trip calls for an airliner-size aircraft and no longer falls under FAR Part 135. Those flights operate under FAR Part 121 or a foreign equivalent, which generally carries stricter crew and operating requirements than both FAR Part 91 and Part 135. Our VIP airliner page covers that end of the fleet. Give us the full headcount early, because it changes the aircraft available and the lead time.
Which Bay Area Airport
You are not tied to one field here, and that is part of the value. San Francisco International, Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport and Mineta San Jose International are the primary fields and the ones that handle customs, along with Monterey Regional. Hayward Executive, Buchanan Field at Concord, Livermore Municipal, Napa County and Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County put you closer to home for many trips.
Tower hours are worth knowing before you plan a late departure. Only San Francisco and Oakland are towered around the clock. Whether a particular aircraft can use a particular airport on your date is the operator’s call for that aircraft, that weight and that day, and your advisor will confirm it before anything is booked.
Talk to an Advisor
Call +1-888-987-5387 at any hour, or send the trip through our contact page. You can read how we check operators, crews and insurance on our safety page.