Diversions

Things go sideways in the real world. Weather closes the field, an emergency comes up, the destination goes out of limits. JetCard models this with diversions — a way to land short of your filed destination, get the aircraft and passengers safely on the ground, and recover the trip on a separate leg.

When to Divert

Divert when continuing to your filed destination isn’t the right call. Common reasons:

• The destination drops below minimums and isn’t expected to recover in time
• A passenger medical or aircraft issue
• ATC reroute that puts you beyond reasonable fuel or time
• You just want to stage the trip differently

JetCard doesn’t audit your reason — if you choose to divert, the system trusts you. The economy and reputation systems handle the consequences.

How to Declare a Diversion

While airborne, open the Flight Tracker tab and click Declare Diversion. You’ll be asked to pick the diversion airport — any field with a runway suitable for your aircraft category. JetCard suggests nearby options based on your current position.

Once you confirm, two things happen:

1. The current charter becomes a diverted leg. Its destination is rewritten to the airport you’re diverting to. You fly to that field and complete the leg as you would any other arrival — taxi in, complete flight, post-flight wrap.
2. A recovery leg is created automatically. This new leg sits in your active flights, ready to pick up later. It runs from the diversion airport to the original destination — closing the loop on the original contract.

You can complete the diverted leg right away. The recovery leg can be flown immediately, the next day, or whenever you’re ready — it stays in your active flights until you pick it up.

Payouts: 50/50 Per Leg

A diversion splits the original charter’s payout evenly across the two legs:

When both legs are flown, you’re made whole on the original charter — half for the diverted half-job, half for finishing it. The split applies to whatever pay model normally governs your status (FREELANCE 10%, EMPLOYED at your pay rate, OWNER full minus expenses).

Operating costs (fuel, FBO, JetCard Care) are charged on each leg as actually flown. A long original charter that diverts halfway and recovers in a short hop will pay differently from one that diverts to a far field — but the charter-value split itself is always 50/50.

Reputation Impact

Diversions carry a small reputation hit because the original schedule slipped — but the impact is much smaller than abandoning a flight outright.

• Declaring a diversion: small rep reduction at the moment of declaration
• Completing the diverted leg: standard completion bonus
• Completing the recovery leg: standard completion bonus, restoring most of what was lost

Compared to abandoning the charter (which costs significantly more rep), a diversion plus recovery is the right move when you can’t make the original field. The system rewards finishing the job over walking away.

Where Recovery Legs Show Up

Recovery legs appear in two places:

• Your active flights — the leg is booked and ready to fly. It also shows up on your Charter Board with a distinct Recovery tag (orange) so you can spot it quickly.
• In the trip narrative if the original charter was part of a multi-leg trip. Recovery legs slot into the trip and the rest of the trip’s legs shift accordingly.

You can’t release or void a recovery leg the way you can a regular charter — once a diversion is declared, the recovery is a commitment to finish the job.

Practical Tips

• Don’t declare a diversion if the destination will be back open in a few minutes. Hold or vector instead — once you declare, the original is gone and you’re committed to the recovery.
• Pick a diversion field with services. Major FBO airports make the diverted-leg arrival smooth. Tiny strips can leave you stuck on the ground without fuel for the recovery.
• Recovery legs let you reposition for free. If your recovery destination is also where your next charter departs from, you save a ferry leg.
• Operators absorb diversion costs across both legs. Each operating expense (fuel, FBO, JCC) is charged to the leg it was incurred on, not split — so the actual P&L on a diversion depends on the geography of the diversion field vs the original route.