The FAA is proposing a civil penalty of 260,868 dollars against ExcelAire, LLC, of New York and Georgia, alleging the company conducted unauthorised charter operations. According to the FAA, ExcelAire’s director of operations surrendered the company’s air carrier certificate in June 2025, when that person and the rest of the company’s required management personnel resigned; the agency alleges that in August 2025, ExcelAire nonetheless operated two flights for compensation or hire, and that it now lacks the qualified management personnel needed to ensure the safety of its operations. The FAA describes this conduct as showing “a disregard for the safety of the flying public,” and its actions as “careless or reckless so as to endanger the lives and property of others.” ExcelAire has 30 days from receiving the FAA’s notice to respond.

WHY THE CERTIFICATE AND ITS MANAGEMENT TEAM MATTER

Under federal aviation regulation, no person may operate as a direct air carrier or commercial operator without, or in violation of, an appropriate certificate and operations specifications, nor advertise such operations without FAA authorisation. A standard Part 135 air carrier certificate requires the holder to name, by position, a Director of Operations, a Chief Pilot and a Director of Maintenance, each meeting the FAA’s experience requirements for that role; these positions exist specifically to ensure a certificate holder has qualified people accountable for safe operations at all times. When ExcelAire’s director of operations surrendered the certificate and the rest of its management team resigned in June 2025, the company lost both its authority to operate as a certificated carrier and the leadership structure the certificate depends on, which is what makes the FAA’s allegation of subsequent compensated flights, and of lacking qualified management personnel, significant.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

FAA civil penalty cases typically proceed from a notice of proposed civil penalty, such as the one issued to ExcelAire, to a response window in which the respondent can pay, negotiate a settlement, or contest the allegations and request a hearing before a Department of Transportation or National Transportation Safety Board administrative law judge; a judge’s decision can then be appealed to the FAA Administrator or the NTSB, and ultimately to a federal court of appeals. For non-individual respondents such as companies, standard civil penalties can reach up to 1.2 million dollars in total, with individual violations typically assessed between 1,100 and 75,000 dollars depending on the provision violated, though many cases are resolved by settlement or compromise before reaching a hearing.