Charter Brokers Hold 74% of Page-One Google Results for Key Private Jet Searches; Operators Just 22%, EpicEdits Index Finds

Private jet charter operators hold just 22% of page-one Google results across ten high-intent charter searches, while brokers and marketplaces control 74%, according to the Private Jet SEO Index 2026 published by EpicEdits, a London-based search marketing agency specialising in private aviation. The Index is described as the first public benchmark of search visibility in the charter industry.

The research combines three studies: an authority benchmark of 97 verified charter operators across North America, Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa; a classification of every page-one Google result for the ten searches; and an audit of what operator websites publish. Operator data was verified against ARGUS TRAQPak flight-hour records and Asian Sky Group fleet reports, with authority scores collected from Ahrefs in July 2026. Three of the 100 operator brands originally selected failed verification, having been sold, revoked or rebranded; their websites still appear in search results.

VistaJet accounts for a third of all operator appearances on page one. Independent operators hold 14% of the results for searches about their own product. For "private jet London to Nice", described as the busiest private aviation corridor in Europe, no operator appears on page one, and for "private jet charter Dubai" no UAE-based operator appears either.

The average operator scores an Ahrefs Domain Rating of 33 out of 100, against an average of 55 for the eight leading charter brokers. Only 8 of the 97 operators beat the broker average, all of them fractional giants or global groups. Middle East operators average a Domain Rating of 21, the weakest of any region, followed by the UK at 26 and North America at 36; every region trails the broker average.

Empty leg searches are the exception: operators took 4 of 9 page-one results, including a Nebraska light-jet operator with a Domain Rating of 34.

Jacob Milner, founder of EpicEdits, said operators pay brokers 10 to 15 per cent commission on flights they could have sold directly.

The study found that operators who rank differ from those who do not on six page types: empty leg pages, published pricing, route pages, FAQs, editorial content and fleet pages. Operators that publish only a fleet page do not rank.

The Index will be refreshed quarterly. The Q4 2026 edition will add an AI citation study measuring which charter brands ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini recommend.

Charter is a market where the buyer's first act is usually a search, and the Index suggests that act mostly lands on intermediaries. When brokers and marketplaces fill three-quarters of page one, they function as the front door to the segment, and the commission operators pay them is the price of access to demand that operators have not captured themselves. The authority gap, 33 against 55 on average, is wide enough that closing it is a sustained content effort rather than a quick fix.

The empty leg result is instructive. Operators took 4 of 9 page-one results there, including a small light-jet operator, which points to specific, transactional pages as the place where an operator without a large domain can compete. The pattern also explains why a fleet page alone does not rank: it describes supply but answers no question a buyer is typing. Pricing, route and FAQ pages match how buyers actually search.

The next dated milestone is the Q4 2026 refresh, which adds a study of which charter brands ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini recommend. That will show whether the broker advantage in traditional search carries over to AI-driven discovery or whether operator-published content is cited differently.