Air Charter Tenders and Contracts

Air charter tenders cover whole-aircraft charter of passengers and cargo, standby charter held at short notice, wet-leased passenger aircraft, helicopter charter and services, and the ground handling arranged around a charter flight.

Stotles brings together air charter tenders and contracts from 100+ portals into one search, so you do not have to check each portal separately, and you can set alerts for new opportunities across the UK and Ireland.

If you want to search the government portals directly, Find a Tender carries higher-value contracts across the UK and Contracts Finder carries lower-value contracts in England. Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTendersNI cover Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Ireland's eTenders covers Irish public bodies, and many councils, NHS bodies and housing associations publish on their own e-tendering portals such as ProContract. Much government air charter is called off from the Government Commercial Agency travel framework, which has a dedicated air charter and lease lot, and Ministry of Defence charter appears on the Defence Sourcing Portal.

Air charter tenders are scored on aircraft availability and suitability, response times, safety record, crew and operational support, and price. Standby and framework arrangements reward operators that can mobilise at short notice.

Air operators must hold an Air Operator Certificate and an operating licence from the Civil Aviation Authority or an equivalent authority, and buyers check safety audits and insurance. Tenders usually set minimum insurance cover, check financial standing and ask for evidence of similar contracts at selection stage. Under the Procurement Act 2023, suppliers can be excluded for certain criminal convictions, insolvency or failure to pay tax.

Air charter is bought as a dedicated multi-year service for a regular need, such as helicopter support for remote sites or a wet-leased passenger aircraft, as one-off charters for expeditions, and through framework agreements for urgent movements.

Defence and other central government bodies, research funders, lighthouse authorities and broadcasters are regular buyers, contracting charter flights and helicopters for deployments, exercises, evacuations, repatriations and operations. A single framework agreement can cover this requirement across government.

Read government air capability reviews, defence transport plans, research expedition programmes and pre-tender notices for aircraft and helicopter services, which show work coming due ahead of a notice. On Stotles you can track those signals and the buyers behind them, then follow a notice from pre-tender through to award.

Air charter notices carry 60424120 (Hire of helicopters with crew), 60424110 (Hire of fixed-wing aircraft with crew) and 34711500 (Helicopters).