Fred Ackerman usually flies on a commercial airline to visit his daughter in Bend, but not this year.

”It was just the thought of standing in all the lines in Oakland and Portland and all the hassles,” Ackerman, 77, said. So he took a charter plane for Thanksgiving instead and ended up getting from his home in Walnut Creek, Calif., to Bend in about 2- hours.

”It’s rare to get here in less than five or six hours when I fly commercial,” he said. While the cost is typically more expensive, Ackerman and others around the nation are beginning to think it’s worth it.

The Air Charter Guide, a publication for charter aircraft companies, reported that inquiries and bookings of charter planes significantly increased over pre-Sept. 11 levels during October. In a survey of 106 charter operators, 77 percent reported that business activity is above September levels with an average increase of 26 percent.

And 84 percent of those companies said much of the demand is coming from people who have not chartered an aircraft.

Interest in Central Oregon charter services has grown as well. While bookings of the planes have remained fairly steady, most of the local companies reported an increased interest in their services, with more people asking questions about prices, flight times and general information.

And the possibility of new clients is good news for charter services and other fixed-based operations that have taken some hard hits in the past couple of months. Most general aviation airports, such as those in Bend and Prineville, were shut down for about 10 days.

”We’ve had more people calling,” said Gary Waldron, chief pilot with The Flight Shop in Bend. ”It’s not as much as we expected, but we think it will pick up.”

Mobley Aviation out of Madras and Sunriver’s Sun Air both said they’d seen more interest in charter flights, but not a significant increase in actual business.

”It’s been about the same,” said Don Mobley. ”Most of the people are still coming in and out (of the airport) on business.”

Waldron said people are starting to look to charter services more out of convenience than fear.

He recently took commercial flights from Redmond to Kansas, a journey that lasted more than 13 hours.

Chartering a plane could have shortened the trip and landed him closer to his final destination, he said.

”It’s more of a time thing,” he said.

But it’s not always the cheapest.

David Underwood, marketing director for Superior Air Charter in Medford, said sometimes taking a commercial airline is definitely cheaper, as chartered flights usually cost a couple thousand dollars, depending on the destination.

”If you can take the time, or it’s just for one person then a commercial airline may be better for you,” he said.

However, the growth of the charter flight business is a matter of looking at all the particulars, he said.

For example, a flight from Medford to Sacramento is about $2,900 far more than a plane ticket to the same place. According to Expedia.com, a roundtrip ticket on a commercial flight is about $200.

”But the justification comes with the flexibility to leave whenever you want, taking only as many people as can fit, and being able to reduce travel time so you don’t miss work,” he said. Often times the price becomes cheaper when divided by six or eight travelers, he added.

Charter planes can leave as early as a client wants, and get people there faster. This aspect often reduces how many nights people need to stay over and can end up saving on lodging, he said.

Security issues also come into play.

When people charter a plane, they charter the whole thing, he said. So clients know that only their baggage is on the plane, and they know the people sitting next to them.

For Dale Evans, president-elect of the Oregon Pilots Association, the future of Central Oregon’s charter aircraft companies rests in how well the area promotes itself to tourists and how cost effective chartered flights become.

”We need to get out there and highlight the fact that we have a small airport, advertise our services and show we are available not only to businesses, but families,” he said.

And while more people may begin to see charters as a viable alternative, Underwood said, the Northwest is and will probably always be behind other parts of the country, such as the Northeast, where several major metropolitan areas are within a couple hundred miles.

”I don’t see the increase (in charter flights) being huge unless we become saturated like the East Coast,” he said.

”We are years from being that big.”