Written below, you will find a rough guide to charter flights. The distinction between charter flights and other
types of flight that you can buy may not always be as clear-cut as stated below. This is intended to be a general guide only.
The airline industry can be thought of as being separated into three sections; scheduled flights, charter flights
and budget airlines.
For more information on the budget airlines, please read our
Budget Airlines page.
Scheduled flights are provided by companies such as British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa etc.. You can buy a
scheduled flight to almost every major city in the world. Flight Comparison compares the prices of agencies that
specialise in selling Scheduled Flights, so our listings are dominated by scheduled flights.
If you wish to fly to a popular holiday destination, such as Malaga or Tenerife, then
buying a charter flight may well be the cheapest option. Charter flights are flights in which the
aircraft has been chartered (or leased) by a company, typically a tour operator such as MyTravel (formerly Airtours)
or Thomson. Please be aware that the quality of service on charter flights is generally regarded as not
as high as that provided on scheduled flights. In addition, the baggage allowance and cancellation policy may be
more restrictive as may be the available return dates.
If you wish to travel to a popular holiday destination therefore, we suggest that you carry out a quick search
for the cheapest scheduled flight on Flight Comparison, but then see if you can find a cheaper charter flight deal.
In this way, you can arm yourself with the knowledge to enable you to make an informed decision about the best flight for you.
As a starting point, we suggest you check some or all of the following websites:
