San Francisco Jet Charter arranges retreat and offsite travel for Bay Area companies, and the destinations tend to pick themselves: wine country, the Sierra, the Monterey peninsula, or somewhere further out that needs everyone to arrive together.
Getting the whole group there at once
The point of an offsite is that everybody is in the room. Booking twenty people onto commercial flights means twenty different arrival times and at least one person who misses the first session. A charter puts the group on one aircraft, landing together, close to the venue.
For wine country that usually means Napa County Airport (KAPC) or Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (KSTS). For the Monterey peninsula it is Monterey Regional (KMRY). Both Napa and Sonoma close their towers at 8 p.m., so an evening arrival is worth flagging when you send the dates through.
Size the aircraft to the group
Ten to fourteen people usually fits a heavy jet. Above that you are into VIP airliner territory, and past nineteen passengers the trip operates under FAR Part 121 or a foreign equivalent rather than Part 135. None of that is a problem, but it changes the aircraft available and the lead time, so the earlier we know the headcount the better the options.
Book early for the busy weeks
Wine country is at its most crowded during crush season, which runs from mid-August to late October. Aircraft and ground arrangements both get tighter in that window. Tahoe does the same thing through ski season, which opens in late November and runs to around late May depending on conditions.
Tell us the venue and the dates and we will work out the rest. Call +1-888-987-5387 or use our contact page.
Vetting Behind Every Trip
Every operator, aircraft, and crew goes through our internal due diligence before we present any options. Our internal standards meet or exceed what the FAA requires:
- FAR Part 135 charter operators for traditional private aircraft, or FAR Part 121 for airliner-size and group trips (or the foreign equivalent on international legs)
- Operator subscription to Wyvern and ARGUS reviewed where the operator participates.
- Pilot experience and operator incident history reviewed before we recommend an aircraft.
- Fewer than 60 brokers worldwide hold Premium Wyvern Broker Member status, and Air Charter Advisors is one of them.
San Francisco-Specific Patterns We Plan Around
Tower hours determine the trips more than anything else. Only San Francisco International and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport are towered around the clock; Hayward Executive closes in the late afternoon, and Livermore runs weekday daytime hours with a short window on weekends. For an early departure or a late return, that difference decides the airport. Customs is narrow in this region too, with San Francisco, Oakland, Mineta San Jose and Monterey Regional the fields that clear international arrivals. Trips into the Sierra are their own case, where elevation and terrain shape the aircraft choice more than the distance does.
Contact
For a quote on a San Francisco charter, send the trip through our contact page or call an advisor at +1-888-987-5387. Our safety page sets out how we check operators, crews and insurance, and the full aircraft gallery covers the other categories. The National Business Aviation Association sets the broader operating standards we work within.