tensorust/part135-operators-sample

Part 135 Charter Operator List: free sample (Tensorust LLC)

Every FAA-certificated charter and air ambulance operator with its fleet, and how much of it the operator does not own.

Headline: 1,793 operators hold FAA Part 135 certificates and fly 11,358 aircraft on their OpSpecs (4,812 jets, 2,833 rotorcraft), and for 1,255 of them more than half the fleet is registered to someone else: the operator flies the airplane, an owner, trust or leasing entity holds the title, and the insurer and lender have to price both.

This repository is a free teaser, not the dataset. It holds 25 example rows and a summary table with no names in it. The full file has 1,793 rows and is sold by Tensorust LLC: https://tensorust.com/datasets/part135-operators/.

Files here

file	what it is
sample.csv	25 rows of the full file (the same sample shown on tensorust.com)
summary_by_home_state.csv	row counts and totals by home state across the full file, no entity names (groups with fewer than 3 rows are folded into "Other")

Summary by home state (largest groups)

Home state	rows	Seats
AK	275	9,192
FL	176	10,860
CA	139	8,120
TX	111	12,263
DE	92	4,688
(blank)	60	9,005
UT	48	11,952
MT	39	1,338
AZ	38	2,244
NY	36	2,947
WA	36	1,260
NV	36	2,020
TOTAL	1,793	130,085

Full table: summary_by_home_state.csv.

What the full file has

• 1,793 rows
• Key fields: designator, operator, cfr, chdo, aircraft, jets, turboprops, pistons, rotorcraft, total_seats
• Parquet and CSV, a README with sources, method and limits, and the build script
• Free 25-row sample (no personal contact data)

Coverage: All 1,793 Part 135 and 121/135 certificate holders on the FAA list (1,786 Part 135, 7 Part 121/135); 11,518 aircraft-level fleet rows. FAA Part 135 list fetched Nov 6 2026, aircraft registry copy of Nov 5 2026; built Nov 6 2026

Columns in the full file

column	meaning
designator	FAA certificate designator
operator	Certificate holder name
cfr	Part 135 or 121/135
chdo	Certificate-holding district office
aircraft	Aircraft on the OpSpec
jets	Turbojet or turbofan aircraft
turboprops	Turboprop or turboshaft fixed-wing aircraft
pistons	Piston aircraft
rotorcraft	Rotorcraft
total_seats	Seats summed over the fleet (registry type data)
avg_year_built	Average year built
oldest_year	Oldest year built
self_registered	Aircraft registered in the operator's own name
registry_matched	Aircraft matched to the registry
distinct_registered_owners	Distinct registered owners across the fleet
top_models	Most common make and model on the OpSpec
home_state	Most common registry state for the fleet
managed_or_leased	Matched aircraft registered to someone other than the operator
managed_share	managed_or_leased over registry_matched
ont_oid	Tensorust ontology organization id for the operator
ont_sources	Public sources the operator appears in
ont_federal_awards_fy25plus	Operator's federal awards FY2025 on, USD (ontology)

Get the full file

tier	price	includes
Region or fleet-type file	$500	Every operator in up to 3 states, or every jet, turboprop or rotorcraft operator nationwide, with fleet mix, age and managed share. CSV and Excel.
National operator and fleet file	$2,200	All 1,793 operators plus the 11,518-row aircraft-level fleet file with registry joins and non-individual registered owners.
Quarterly refresh	$5,500 a year	The national files re-run each quarter, with new certificates, surrendered certificates and aircraft added or removed per operator marked. Internal use, unlimited seats.

Email mattbusel@tensorust.com with the tier and a billing contact, and we will send a proper invoice (ACH or card). The file is delivered once the invoice is paid. Details and the live sample: https://tensorust.com/datasets/part135-operators/. All datasets: https://tensorust.com/datasets/

Method and limits

Download the FAA's list of certificated Part 135 holders (one row per aircraft on OpSpec D085), join each N-number to the FAA aircraft registry MASTER and ACFTREF files (98.9% matched), classify engine and aircraft type, compare the operator name with the registered owner name to count self-registered aircraft, roll up per operator designator, and join the operator to the Tensorust ontology (646 matched). fleet.csv keeps the aircraft-level rows with owner names only for non-individual registrants.

Not flight activity or revenue, not safety records, and not ownership findings: a different registered owner usually means a managed, leased, fractional or trust-held aircraft, not a violation. Individual owners are shown as (individual), and no street addresses are included. Registry match is by N-number as of the registry copy used.

Sources

• FAA Certificated Aircraft Operators, legal Part 135 holders, https://www.faa.gov/about/officeorg/headquartersoffices/avs/faa-certificated-aircraft-operators-legal-part-135-holders.xlsx
• FAA Aircraft Registry releasable database (MASTER, ACFTREF), https://registry.faa.gov/database/ReleasableAircraft.zip
• Tensorust ontology (operator organizations)

License

The sample and summary here are free to view, analyze and cite with attribution to "Tensorust LLC, https://tensorust.com/datasets/part135-operators/". The full dataset is licensed separately per tier. No resale or redistribution of Tensorust data without a written license.

Tensorust LLC, Tuckahoe NY. mattbusel@tensorust.com | https://tensorust.com