Guide
How charter seat distribution works.
Who charters the aircraft, who holds the seats, and how those seats reach a travel agency’s screen and a traveller’s ticket.
What a charter flight is
A charter flight is a flight operated for whoever hired the aircraft, rather than one a scheduled airline sells under its own timetable. In leisure travel the hirer is often a tour operator, or a group of operators sharing one aircraft, flying to holiday or pilgrimage destinations in season.
Charter seats are therefore usually not filed as fares in the global distribution systems (GDS) that scheduled airlines use. They are inventory owned by the charterer — and the charterer has to sell it.
The chain from aircraft to traveller
The airline operates the aircraft. The charterer or tour operator contracts it — the whole aircraft or a share — and holds the seats. Consolidators may buy blocks of those seats to resell. Travel agencies sell seats to travellers, often as part of a package. Each link adds its margin and needs its own price.
Where it usually breaks
Without a shared system, seat counts live in spreadsheets and messages. Seats are sold twice when two agencies book at once, prices meant for one agency reach another, and money is collected after the flight rather than before.
What a charter distribution system does
A charter flight distribution system — sometimes called a charter GDS — puts the charterer’s seats in one live inventory and lets every seller draw on it: sub-agencies on a trade portal, agencies on their own branded shops, and partner systems through an API. Each seller sees its own price; payment, the seat and the ticket move together.
See how Blocks Master does this for charter airlines, tour operators and travel agencies.
Solutions
One distribution system for everyone who sells or buys charter seats.
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