Empty Leg Flights

When a charter drops passengers in one city and the aircraft is needed somewhere else, that ferry flight would otherwise operate empty. Operators sell those sectors at discounts that commonly reach 50 to 75 percent off the standard charter price, because any revenue on a flight that was going to happen regardless is better than none. For travelers, empty leg flights are the cheapest way to fly private, full stop. The trade-off is control.

The route, the aircraft, and the approximate timing are fixed by the original charter that created the leg. If the originating trip cancels, the empty leg disappears with it, so these flights suit flexible plans rather than immovable meetings. Most empty legs are one-way, and the schedule can shift by several hours at short notice. Our clients who use them well fall into a few groups: leisure travelers with open dates, second-home owners flying familiar routes, and companies that keep a shortlist of acceptable date windows and pounce when a matching sector appears.

What you give up in flexibility you do not give up in quality or safety. An empty leg operates on the same aircraft, with the same crew, under the same certificate as the full-price charter that created it, whether that is FAA Part 135, an EASA AOC, or the local equivalent. We apply the same operator screening, including ARGUS and Wyvern audit checks, before listing any sector. The cabin experience is identical to a standard charter; only the price and the fixed routing differ.

Availability follows traffic patterns. Dense charter corridors produce the most sectors: New York to Florida, London to the south of France and Geneva, Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Aspen in season. Light jets in the Phenom 300 class dominate the inventory, though midsize and heavy sectors appear weekly on long corridors. Because legs are created and sold continuously, the practical approach is to tell us your route and a date range; we match against live repositioning inventory and alert you when a sector fits.

If your dates cannot move, a standard private jet charter quote is the honest comparison, and sometimes the discount does not justify the constraint. We will tell you which side of that line your trip falls on before you commit. Empty leg flights reward patience and flexibility more than any other product in private aviation, and the savings compound for anyone who flies the same corridor several times a season. Ask us for the current empty leg flights list on your route before booking anything at full price.