Inclement Weather
In most cases, weather will not affect your flight, except for the occasional bump. Your air charter flight can not depart when the weather forecast indicate a safe flight can not be completed or if the weather at the destination airport is below minimums as describe below.
- ILS or Instrument landing systems require a minimum of ½ mile visibility at the end of the runways and the clouds must be at least 200 feet or higher above the ground. Most major airports are equipped with these precision approaches.
- Non precision approaches, such as NDB or VOR approaches have higher minimums. These are usually 1 mile visibility at the end of the runway and a ceiling of 800 feet or higher. These instrument approaches are usually located at rural airports.
- Mountain airports many times have much higher minimums, such as Aspen, Colorado, where 5 miles of visibility and a ceiling of 3,500 feet is needed before an instrument approach can even be initiated.
- Landing minimums vary from airport to airport and by the type of aircraft you are flying.
If the weather at your destination airport goes below the set landing minimums, your pilot will have to land at an alternate airport, and the difference in flight time may be added to your cost of your air charter.
In Air Denver's 30 years of operation, we have seen very few air charters not be completed because of weather. The regulation that requires a plane to stay on the ground if the flight can not be completed in the forecast weather is a good one. If your flight is cancelled due to weather, there is almost always no cancellation penalty.
