Air charter service JSX now embroiled with FAA over ‘existential’ rule changes

JSX, the 30-seats-per-plane self-described “air charter service” tied up in a lawsuit with Westchester County in Federal District Court over its refusal to use the County Airport’s (HPN) main terminal while selling tickets to the public on the internet and operating out of the Fixed-Base Operators (FBO) side of the airport, now has a tougher opponent to its business model than the County—the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  

In a proposed rule issued Aug. 24, 2023 and posted in the Federal Register on Aug. 29, 2023, the FAA says it wants to require all air charter services to operate under the same safety regulations as all airlines.

Acknowledging that the rule change would require “affected operators to adjust their service models,” and the impact it would have, the FAA has asked for public comments on or before Oct. 13, 2023.

The Wall Street Journal’s Alison Snider succinctly summed up the JSX dilemma Sept. 9, 2023:

“JSX is now at the center of a roiling debate that touches on pilot training standards and safety. It has some airlines in its corner, but others—including American Airlines and several aviation unions—say JSX is exploiting a regulatory loophole that needs to be slammed shut.”

Most critically, here’s the loophole, according to Snider:

“JSX can hire pilots who are too old to fly for commercial airlines or who don’t have the requisite 1,500 hours of flying experience, helping it avoid a labor chokepoint that has forced other airlines to cut back on flights to some small markets.”

Snider reports that the FAA has “become concerned as carriers operating scheduled charter flights have expanded. There are tens of thousands more of those flights compared with a decade ago, according to projections that carriers have submitted to the Transportation Department. The FAA in an Aug. 24 notice said some public charter carriers have become complicated, high-frequency operators that are “essentially indistinguishable” from regular airlines. It said regulatory changes might be needed to ensure their safety.”

The argument that JSX is “essentially indistinguishable” from regular airlines is the same argument the County has made in its lawsuit that seeks to eject JSX from the FBO side of the airport and force it to use HPN’s Main Terminal, which is governed by the County’s Terminal Use Protocols (TUPs).

JSX’s CEO Alex Wilcox told Snider that rival airlines couldn’t handle the competition from JSX and that changing regulations would be fatal to its business model.

“We built a better mousetrap. And the people with the old mousetraps don’t like that,” he said. “It’s an existential fight for us, but it’s one we’re going to win.”