What a Part 91 Corporate Flight Department Needs in Ops Software
A Part 91 corporate flight department isn't a charter operation and isn't an airline — but it still has to schedule aircraft and crews, track currency and airworthiness, and keep records an auditor or insurer would accept. Here's what to look for in operations software.
A corporate flight department flies the company's own aircraft for the company's own purposes — Part 91 operations, not common carriage for hire. That changes the regulatory burden compared to a Part 135 charter shop or a Part 121 airline, but it does not make the department casual. The aircraft are expensive, the principals are senior, the insurer has expectations, and the flight department often holds itself to a standard well above the regulatory floor. The software that runs it has to reflect that.
What Part 91 does — and doesn't — require
Under Part 91, the operation isn't carrying passengers or cargo for compensation, so it's outside the Part 135/121 commercial framework: no Ops Specs in the air-carrier sense, no FAR 117 airline duty regime, and a different recordkeeping posture. What Part 91 still requires is real: pilots current and qualified for what they fly, aircraft airworthy and inspected on schedule, Airworthiness Directives and Service Bulletins tracked, and required documents and records maintained. Many departments also voluntarily adopt a Safety Management System (SMS) and higher internal duty/rest standards.
The jobs the software actually has to do
Strip away the certificate differences and a flight department's operational needs are concrete:
- Aircraft and crew scheduling on one conflict-aware calendar — who's flying which tail, when, with the trip already deconflicted against maintenance and crew availability.
- Crew currency and credential tracking — certificates, ratings, medicals, and type ratings with expiry alerts before they lapse, not after.
- An aircraft program — AD/SB applicability and inspection clocks per tail, so airworthiness status isn't living in a maintenance binder.
- A pilot logbook — a clean 61.51 record, ideally auto-filling from completed flights and importing/exporting ForeFlight CSV.
- Records and an audit trail an insurer, an auditor, or a new chief pilot can actually read — who did what, when.
Be honest about what's shipped vs. planned
Flight departments increasingly want flight planning, weight & balance, and integrated weather briefing in the same tool. Those are legitimate needs, but when you evaluate any vendor, separate what ships today from what's on a roadmap. AviationAlley supports Part 91 aircraft and crew scheduling, the aircraft program with AD/SB tracking, credentials, and the 61.51 logbook today; integrated flight planning, weight & balance, and weather briefing are in development, targeted for the first quarter of 2027. We'd rather tell you that plainly than imply a planned capability is already in your hands.
How to evaluate it
Demo against your real fleet and your real people. Schedule a week of trips across your tails and crews and try to create a conflict the system should catch. Load your actual currency and inspection dates and confirm the right things flag at the right lead time. Hand it to a pilot and a scheduler for an afternoon — if it fits how a flight department actually works without a charter or airline workflow getting in the way, it's a fit.
Common questions
Does a Part 91 flight department need Operations Specifications?
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Not in the air-carrier sense. Ops Specs are a feature of commercial certificates under Part 119 / 121 / 135. A Part 91 corporate department operates the company's own aircraft and isn't carrying for compensation, so it doesn't hold air-carrier Ops Specs — though it still must meet Part 91's airworthiness, currency, and documentation requirements, and many departments adopt internal standards above the floor.
Is FAR 117 duty/rest required for corporate pilots?
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FAR 117 is the flightcrew fatigue rule for Part 121 air carriers; it doesn't apply to Part 91 corporate operations. That said, many flight departments voluntarily adopt duty/rest limits and fatigue-management practices as part of their safety culture and insurance posture. Good ops software lets a Part 91 department track duty and rest even when the airline rule doesn't bind it.
Can corporate departments track AD/SB and inspections in the same tool as scheduling?
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Yes — and they should. Keeping airworthiness (Airworthiness Directives, Service Bulletins, life-limited parts, inspection clocks) in the same system as the schedule means a tail that's coming due for an inspection is visible to the people booking trips, instead of surfacing as a surprise. AviationAlley's aircraft program does this per tail today.
Does AviationAlley do flight planning and weight & balance for Part 91?
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Aircraft and crew scheduling, the aircraft program with AD/SB tracking, credentials, and the 61.51 logbook are available for Part 91 operations today. Integrated flight planning, weight & balance, and weather briefing are in development, targeted for Q1 2027 — we label them as planned rather than implying they ship now.
See what AviationAlley looks like for your operation
Scheduling and dispatch, FAR compliance tracking, training and crew records, parts & work orders, billing, and a built-in audit log — in one workspace that scopes to the FAR Part(s) you run.