The charter industry has an endemic follow-up problem. A prospect visits your website, submits a quote request, receives a quote by email — and then hears nothing. No follow-up. No additional information. No check-in to see whether the quote met their needs. The prospect books with the operator who followed up, or they abandon the trip entirely.
I have seen this pattern across dozens of charter operations. The quoting process is often excellent — operations teams produce detailed, accurate quotes within hours. But the sales process after the quote is delivered is almost universally weak. Quote follow-up depends on individual staff members remembering to chase prospects, and when the ops team is busy managing flights, follow-up is the first thing that falls off.
Email marketing automation solves this problem. Not by replacing personal relationships, but by ensuring that every lead receives a consistent, value-driven follow-up sequence that keeps your operation visible throughout the decision process. Here are the specific sequences every charter operator should implement, and exactly what each email should contain.
Sequence One: Post-Quote Follow-Up
This is the sequence that directly impacts revenue. When a prospect receives a quote from your team, the automated follow-up sequence begins.
Email 1: Quote delivery confirmation (immediate). Sent the moment the quote is delivered. Confirms what was quoted — route, aircraft type, date, and indicative pricing — and sets expectations for what happens next. Includes a direct phone number and the name of the account manager handling their enquiry. This email ensures the quote does not get buried in the prospect's inbox.
Email 2: Value-add follow-up (24 hours after quote delivery). Does not ask "did you receive the quote?" Instead, provides additional value related to their specific trip. If they requested a Melbourne to Mildura charter, this email might include FBO information at Mildura, ground transfer options, or a note about aircraft alternatives if they want to explore a different cabin size. The subtext is: "We are thinking about your trip, not just processing a transaction."
Email 3: Objection-handling email (72 hours after quote delivery). Addresses the two most common reasons quotes do not convert: price and uncertainty. If the prospect has not responded, this email might include a brief comparison of charter cost versus commercial travel time-cost for their specific route, a mention of empty leg availability that could reduce costs, or an invitation to discuss flexible scheduling that might affect pricing. Include a direct link to your safety credentials page.
Email 4: Final follow-up (7 days after quote delivery). A direct, honest email acknowledging that they may have booked elsewhere or decided not to travel. Offers to keep the quote on file for future trips, invites them to join your empty leg notification list, and provides a final direct contact for their account manager. This email closes the sequence without burning the relationship.
The metrics to track: open rate per email, reply rate, and most importantly, the percentage of quotes that convert to bookings where the follow-up sequence was active versus those that received no automated follow-up. Operators who implement this sequence consistently report a 15 to 25 percent increase in quote-to-booking conversion.
Sequence Two: New Lead Nurture
Not every enquiry results in an immediate quote. Some prospects are researching charter for a future trip, evaluating whether charter fits their budget, or comparing operators without a specific date in mind. These leads need nurturing before they are ready for a quote conversation.
Email 1: Welcome and credibility (immediate after form submission). Thank them for their interest. Briefly introduce your operation — fleet size, primary routes, safety credentials, and years of operation. Include a link to your fleet page and a relevant case study. Set the expectation: "Over the next few weeks, we will send you a few emails that help you understand how charter works and whether it is the right fit for your travel needs."
Email 2: How charter pricing works (Day 3). This email addresses the number one barrier to charter conversion: price uncertainty. Explain how charter pricing is structured — hourly rates, positioning fees, overnight costs, landing fees — in plain language. Provide indicative ranges by aircraft category for common route lengths. This transparency builds trust and qualifies the lead: if the pricing is within their range, they are a genuine prospect.
Email 3: Safety and credentials (Day 7). Detail your safety certifications, pilot qualification standards, maintenance programme, and insurance coverage. For corporate leads, mention which safety audits you hold — ARG/US, IS-BAO, Wyvern — and why these matter. Link to your charter marketing page for the full operational overview.
Email 4: Case study (Day 12). Share a specific case study relevant to the prospect's apparent use case. If they enquired about a corporate route, send a corporate case study. If they enquired about a leisure destination, send a leisure case study. Personalisation at this stage significantly increases engagement.
Email 5: First-time flyer guide (Day 18). Many charter enquiries come from people who have never flown privately. A guide covering what to expect — arrival procedures, baggage handling, in-flight experience, FBO facilities — reduces the anxiety that prevents first-time buyers from committing. This email positions your operation as helpful and approachable rather than exclusive and intimidating.
Email 6: Direct invitation (Day 24). A personal-tone email from the account manager inviting the prospect to discuss their travel needs. Include specific prompts: "If you have a trip in mind, we can provide a quote within two hours. If you are exploring charter for future use, I am happy to discuss your typical travel patterns and recommend whether charter makes sense for your needs." Include a calendar booking link.
Sequence Three: Seasonal Reactivation
Charter demand follows predictable seasonal patterns. Ski season, summer resort travel, major sporting events, racing carnivals, and holiday periods generate spikes in charter enquiry. A seasonal reactivation sequence targets your existing database ahead of these demand peaks.
Email 1: Seasonal preview (8 weeks before peak). Alert your database to upcoming demand for specific routes and aircraft types. "Aspen charter season is approaching — we are now accepting bookings for December through March." Include aircraft options, typical pricing for the route, and an early-booking incentive if applicable.
Email 2: Availability update (4 weeks before peak). Report on booking levels and remaining availability. Scarcity messaging works in charter because it is genuine — aircraft and crew availability are finite. "Our Citation XLS is now 60 percent booked for the Christmas week period. We have three slots remaining for Sydney to Gold Coast transfers."
Email 3: Last call (2 weeks before peak). Final availability notification with a direct booking CTA. This email should be brief and action-oriented. Include your operations phone number for immediate bookings.
Sequence Four: Post-Flight Re-engagement
The period immediately after a charter flight is the highest-opportunity moment for repeat business and referrals. The client has just experienced the service and is most receptive to follow-up.
Email 1: Thank you and feedback (24 hours after flight). Thank them for choosing your operation. Request brief feedback on the experience. Include a direct link to leave a Google review — charter operators are chronically under-reviewed, and each genuine review improves your local search visibility significantly.
Email 2: Referral invitation (7 days after flight). Invite the client to refer colleagues or contacts who might benefit from charter. Offer a meaningful referral incentive — a credit toward their next flight rather than a generic gift. Include a simple referral link or form.
Email 3: Next trip planning (21 days after flight). Check in about upcoming travel needs. Reference their previous route: "Are you planning another trip to [destination]? We have strong availability over the next quarter and can offer preferred rates for repeat clients." This keeps the relationship active without being pushy.
Sequence Five: Empty Leg Alerts
Empty leg marketing is a distinct discipline that requires its own email infrastructure. The key principles:
Segment by route preference. Allow subscribers to select the routes they are interested in so they only receive relevant alerts. A subscriber interested in Brisbane to Sydney empty legs should not receive alerts for Perth to Broome.
Speed of notification matters more than production quality. An empty leg email sent within an hour of the leg being confirmed, with basic formatting and clear details, will generate more bookings than a beautifully designed email sent 48 hours later.
Include all decision-critical information in the email. Route, date, time, aircraft type, available seats, indicative pricing, and a one-click enquiry button. Do not make the subscriber click through to your website to find the details — the decision to enquire should be possible from the email itself.
Set appropriate expectations. Empty legs are subject to cancellation if the primary charter changes. State this clearly in your empty leg communications to avoid reputation damage from cancelled bookings.
The Technical Foundation
For these sequences to work, three technical requirements must be in place:
CRM integration. Your email platform must receive data from your quoting system. When a quote is sent, the post-quote follow-up sequence triggers automatically. When a flight is completed, the post-flight sequence triggers. Manual triggers introduce delays and inconsistency that destroy the value of automation.
Contact segmentation. Your email list must distinguish between corporate leads, leisure leads, empty leg subscribers, past clients, and prospects at different stages of the buying process. Sending a first-time flyer guide to a corporate travel manager who books monthly is tone-deaf and damages the relationship.
Deliverability infrastructure. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication on your sending domain. Clean list hygiene with regular removal of bounced and unengaged addresses. A consistent sending schedule that ISPs recognise as legitimate business communication.
The investment in email automation for charter operations is modest relative to the revenue it protects. Every quote that goes unfollowed is potential revenue lost to a competitor who simply showed up in the prospect's inbox when you did not.
If your charter operation is losing bookings to inconsistent follow-up, our team at OTG builds email automation systems specifically for aviation operators. Start a conversation about your charter email strategy and we will identify the sequences that will have the greatest impact on your conversion rates.
For the broader picture of how email marketing fits within a complete charter marketing system, visit our content marketing services page.
