Ferrying Aircraft

Aircraft don’t teleport. If the jet you want to fly isn’t at the same airport as your next charter, it has to get there — that’s a ferry flight. JetCard handles two flavors: AI Ferry (instant, paid) and Pilot Ferry (you fly it).

When You’ll Ferry

Two common moments:

Accepting a charter with the wrong aircraft location. You pick a charter from the Charter Board, select an aircraft from your fleet, and JetCard notices it’s not at the departure airport. You’ll get a prompt to ferry before you can dispatch.
Repositioning between flights. From the Company Fleet page, you can ferry any owned aircraft to any airport at any time. Useful for staging aircraft near upcoming charter activity, returning a jet to base after a one-way trip, or moving a fleet around when you change bases.

AI Ferry

AI Ferry handles the leg for you. The aircraft instantly relocates to the destination — no flying required. You pay the operating costs of the leg with a small surcharge:

Fuel at the aircraft’s actual burn rate × leg time
FBO fees at both ends (or doubled if a tech stop is needed — see below)
15% surcharge on fuel and FBO costs to cover the AI crew

This is the option most operators use for routine repositioning. It’s predictable, fast, and lets you focus on the revenue-generating flights.

Pilot Ferry

Want to fly the leg yourself? Pilot Ferry sends you through the full Dispatch Module just like a regular charter — OFP, weather, ground ops, the whole flow. The differences:

No charter value. A ferry doesn’t have a paying client. Owner-operators absorb the operating costs out of the operator’s balance.
Flight number uses a 9xx series (e.g. JAS-901) so it’s clearly a positioning leg.
Reputation impact is minimal — completing a ferry is normal operations, not a feat.

Pilots often use this for long repositioning legs they want to actually fly, or to log additional hours on a specific airframe.

Range Checks

Before either ferry option, JetCard checks the aircraft’s range against the leg distance.

Within range: ferry proceeds normally.
Beyond range, AI Ferry: the AI is permitted to make a tech stop. FBO fees are doubled (one for the tech stop, one for arrival), but the leg completes. The surcharge still applies.
Beyond range, Pilot Ferry: the option is blocked. You’ll need to either pick AI Ferry, swap to a different aircraft, or fly a multi-leg manual repositioning by accepting an intermediate ferry first.

Cost at a Glance

For a representative Citation Latitude (Super Midsize) ferrying 1,200 NM:

Fuel (~3 hours at typical burn): ~$8,400
FBO fees (departure + arrival): $2,000
AI Ferry surcharge (15% of fuel + FBO): ~$1,560
Total AI Ferry: ~$11,960
Pilot Ferry total: ~$10,400 (no surcharge, but you fly the leg)

Costs scale with category — a Heavy Jet ferry costs more in fuel and FBO fees than a Light Jet doing the same distance, exactly like real-world ops.

Operator Permissions

If you fly for an operator (EMPLOYED status), ferry options are governed by your role:

Pilots can request a Pilot Ferry only when an aircraft has been assigned to them. AI Ferry costs are billed to the operator.
Chief Pilots can ferry any aircraft in the fleet, with or without assignment.
Owners have full control of all fleet movements.

Freelance pilots flying NPC aircraft don’t deal with ferrying — the NPC operator handles aircraft positioning behind the scenes.

After a Ferry

Once the ferry completes, the aircraft’s Location field updates to the new airport. Your next dispatch can pick up from there. There’s no cooldown — fly the next charter immediately if you want.