What is private airlines?

Question

What is private airlines?

Answer 1

What's the context?  The word Airlines implies available to all paying passengers.  The word private implies limited access.  There are private commercial aircraft, like company owned but they are not airlines.

Maybe that's why you got confused.  Tell your source to be more specific.

Helps??

Answer 2

There is a company in SA that is known to be the biggest private airline in the world. It all comes down to share holding. If a company is owned by a single person it can be called private. It may aslo not own any other companys. Sabian Air opperated +- 40 privatelly owned aircraft. The owner Alen Selcon is very good mates with Sir Richard Branston.

Answer 3

If the operations are in interstate or foreign commerce, this distinction determines whether or not the operator needs economic authority as an "air carrier" from the Department of Transportation here in the United States. Operations that constitute common carriage are required to be conducted under Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Parts 121 or 135.  Private carriage may be conducted under FAR parts 125 or 91, Subpart D.  Operations conducted under FAR Section 91.181, which permits certain charges to be made, may also be subject to these guidelines, particularly the "time sharing" provisions of FAR Section 91.181(c)(1).  It should also be noted that lease agreements entered into under FAR Section 91.181 are subject to FAR Section 91.54, "Truth in leasing clause requirement in leases and conditional sales contracts."

A carrier becomes a common carrier when it "holds itself out" to the public, or to a segment of the public, as willing to furnish transportation within the limits of its facilities to any person who wants it.  Absence of tariffs or rate schedules, transportation only pursuant to separately negotiated contracts, or occasional refusals to transport, are not conclusive proof that the carrier is not a common carrier.  There are four elements in defining a common carrier; (1) a holding out of a willingness to (2) transport persons or property (3) from place to place (4) for compensation. This "holding out" which makes a person a common carrier can be done in many ways and it does not matter how it is done.

Carriage for hire, which does not involve "holding out" is private carriage.  Private carriers for hire are sometimes called "contract carriers," but the term is borrowed from the Interstate Commerce Act and legally inaccurate when used in connection with the Federal Aviation Act.  Private carriage for hire is carriage for one or several selected customers, generally on a long-term basis.  The number of contracts must not be too great, otherwise it implies a willingness to make a contract with anybody.  A carrier operating pursuant to 18 to 24 contracts has been held to be a common carrier because it held itself out to serve the public generally to the extent of its facilities.  Private carriage has been found in cases where three contracts have been the sole basis of the operator's business.  Special adaptation of the transportation service to the individual needs of shippers is a factor tending to establish private carriage but is not necessarily conclusive.

You can find addition information in AC 120-12A Private carriage versus common carriage of persons or property, available on the FAA web site at: http://www.faa.gov