Charter

Charter is the quiet giant at Centennial. While the flight schools fill the pattern, the charter ramps move executives to board meetings, patients to hospitals, freight to towns the airlines forgot, and skiers to the mountains without a single TSA line. If you have never flown charter from APA, the short version: you drive up about fifteen minutes before departure, park next to the airplane, and leave when you are ready.

One distinction matters more than any other on this page. An operator holds the FAA Part 135 certificate, employs the pilots, and maintains the airplanes. A broker or platform sells you a seat or a whole airplane and sources the flight from operators. Both models are represented at KAPA, and both have their place. We label which is which on every listing, because the question you should always ask first is: whose certificate is this flight operating under?

The operators here range from a family shop flying since 1978 to the cargo workhorse whose green Metroliners are a ramp fixture, to a scheduled carrier that will put you in a mountain town before your coffee cools. Most charter departures stage from one of the five FBOs, so skim that guide too if you are meeting an airplane.