The Federal Aviation Administration plans to impose tougher safety requirements on public charter airlines such as Dallas-based JSX, a move toward closing what critics have called a loophole in US aviation rules.
The new regulations aim to ensure that public charters that effectively operate like a typical commercial airline abide by the same safety rules, the FAA said in a statement on Monday. JSX markets itself as “the ultimate travel hack” because passengers can bypass airport crowds and security lines.
”If a company is effectively operating as a scheduled airline, the FAA needs to determine whether those operations should follow the same stringent rules as scheduled airlines,” FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said in the statement.
The rise in popularity of operations like JSX and whether they pose any safety or security risks has split the industry. Critics have said JSX and others like it exploit a loophole in current rules, allowing them to operate scheduled flights like large airlines under less-stringent standards intended to govern private charter operations.
The move announced Monday comes after the regulator solicited feedback on potential rule changes in August, leading to about 60,000 comments from other airlines, unions, airports, cities and travelers.
Public charter carriers such as JSX and others offer regularly scheduled flights from smaller, private terminals. While limited to carrying 30 passengers per flight, they aren’t subject to rules requiring pilots to have a minimum of 1,500 flying hours and a mandatory retirement age of 65.
Their passengers also don’t have to go through the type of security screenings as customers flying on commercial carriers. JSX swabs bags for explosives and passengers walk through a weapons detector, but there are no Transportation Security Administration agents like with commercial carriers.
”As the country’s largest public charter air carrier, JSX has modeled the way forward for safe, secure, and reliable regional operations,” JSX said in a statement. “We eagerly look forward to collaborating with our regulators to cement the importance of public charters and expand access to vital air connectivity in the future.”
JSX has waged a publicity campaign accusing critics American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. of pressuring the government to crush its business model and deny the flying public more choices.
The two larger airlines have denied any anti-competitive motive, saying they simply seek a uniform standard for regularly scheduled public flight operators.
The FAA and the TSA last year began reviewing whether standards for public charter carriers should be revised after the FAA said their rapid expansion would pose “an increased risk to safety if left unchecked.”
The FAA said it plans to issue its new rule “expeditiously” and that the proposal would seek comment on an effective date that would give the industry enough time to adapt.
Allyson Versprille and Mary Schlangenstein for Bloomberg
