How should you judge a charter supplier or private-flight plan?

First establish whether the proposed service is eligible for approval. Then score aircraft suitability, total mission cost, recovery commitments and contractual exposure—not the sales brand or advertised hourly rate.

This scorecard gives executive assistants, corporate procurement teams and family offices a repeatable way to compare proposals and explain their decision to finance. It is designed for Daniel Gibbs’s Corporate Travel and Private Aviation Research desk.

Research cut-off: 16 October 2026. Geography: United States. Currency: USD.

The weights, scoring anchors, approval thresholds and worked examples below are this desk’s proposed procurement methodology, not regulatory standards, measured industry benchmarks or a prediction of safety. Named supplier documents illustrate particular contractual provisions; they are not endorsements or supplier rankings.

What should the decision file contain?

Produce five outputs for every comparison:

1. Eligibility: pass, hold or reject against non-negotiable requirements.
2. Weighted score: a maximum of 100 points, using one agreed weighting profile.
3. Evidence coverage: the percentage of weighted criteria supported well enough to score.
4. Financial exposure: known expenditure, conditional charges and prepaid commitments shown separately.
5. Approval conditions: unresolved questions, accountable owners and deadlines.

A high score cannot override an unresolved operating-authority question, a documented mission mismatch or an unacceptable contractual exposure.