Empty Legs · 6 min read
What Is an Empty Leg Flight?
An empty leg is a private jet flight that has to happen anyway with no passengers on board — usually the aircraft repositioning to collect its next charter or returning to base. Operators sell these sectors at a discount, commonly 25–60% below the equivalent ad-hoc charter price, in exchange for fixed routing and limited date flexibility.
Updated 31/07/2026
Key Facts
- Typical saving
- 25–60% vs ad-hoc charter
- Routing
- Fixed origin and destination
- Timing
- Operator-controlled, can shift
- Cancellation risk
- Real — the parent charter governs
- Best for
- Flexible travellers, one-way trips
Why empty legs exist
Private aircraft do not live at your departure airport. When a client charters a jet from Nice to London, that aircraft may have started the day in Geneva and will need to get somewhere else afterwards. Those connecting sectors fly empty unless someone buys them.
The operator has already committed the fuel, crew duty and airport fees. Any revenue on the empty sector is better than none — which is why the pricing is genuinely, not artificially, lower.
What you give up
- You cannot change the origin or destination airport.
- Departure times are set by the operating charter and can move.
- If the parent charter cancels or reschedules, your empty leg can disappear.
- Aircraft substitution is more common than on ad-hoc charter.
- Return legs are rarely available on the same aircraft.
How to actually catch one
Empty legs are a matching problem, not a browsing problem. The listings you see today are largely gone within 24–72 hours. The travellers who fly them consistently are the ones whose dates are soft and who have registered the routes they care about.
- Search live availability rather than relying on static lists.
- Be willing to shift departure by a few hours.
- Consider nearby airports — London has five viable business-aviation fields.
- Decide quickly; empty-leg inventory is genuinely perishable.
Where to see live empty legs
Static lists date quickly. Our live empty-leg marketplace reads current repositioning inventory at page load, with a timestamped count and filters by airport, city group, date and aircraft.
If you want to know exactly what we count as a current opportunity, how duplicate records across sources are removed and why the total moves during the day, our validation methodology sets it out in full.
When an empty leg is the wrong choice
If the meeting cannot move, if you are carrying a group with fixed onward connections, or if you need a guaranteed cabin specification, book ad-hoc charter. The saving on an empty leg is real, but so is the operational risk, and we would rather tell you that up front.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much cheaper are empty leg flights?
Typically 25–60% below the equivalent ad-hoc charter price for the same aircraft and sector. The discount is deepest on sectors the operator would otherwise fly completely empty at short notice.
Can an empty leg flight be cancelled?
Yes. The empty leg only exists because of the charter that created it. If that booking moves or cancels, the repositioning sector moves or disappears with it. Always have a fallback if the trip is time-critical.
Can I change the destination of an empty leg?
No. The routing is fixed by the operator's own requirement to get the aircraft into position. If you need a different destination, that is an ad-hoc charter.
Are empty legs safe?
They are operated by the same AOC-holding operators, the same aircraft and the same crews as full-price charter, under identical regulatory oversight. Only the commercial terms differ.
How do I find empty legs from my local airport?
Use the live empty-leg search and filter by departure airport or city group. SkyBridge aggregates operator inventory rather than publishing a static list.