Short
An empty leg is a flight that an aircraft operates without passengers: returning to its base after booking or continuing to the next destination. These segments are sold at a discount of 30–70% because the aircraft is still flying and the expenses are already included. The discount is subject to strict conditions: the date, time, and route are not adjusted, you are assigned a plane that is flying your destination, and offers can become available 24–48 hours before departure.
An empty leg is a repositioning flight of a business jet without passengers. Business aviation runs largely on one-way trips: after dropping a client, the aircraft must return to base or fly to the next departure point. The scale is considerable: industry calculations put around 40% of private jet flights as empty return legs. This repositioning has to be flown and paid for regardless, so the operator is willing to sell it at a discount.
Why empty legs arise
Private flights are rarely perfectly symmetrical. Example: a client flies Paris to Nice on Friday but returns only on Sunday. If another client needs the same aircraft from Geneva on Saturday, the operator repositions it from Nice to Geneva. That Nice–Geneva segment is a potential empty leg.
The operator's choice is simple: fly the repositioning entirely empty, carrying all costs with no revenue, or sell that flight to someone who happens to need the same route. Even heavily discounted, the sale is worthwhile — it offsets costs already committed. Some revenue beats none.
How much cheaper
The discount depends heavily on how well your plan matches an already-scheduled reposition. The industry benchmark is a saving of 25% to 75% against a standard charter, and at best — when date and route line up precisely — up to 70–75%. These are benchmarks, not a guarantee: the real saving always depends on how your request fits the aircraft's route.
Importantly, the discount reflects the market economics of repositioning, not a drop in quality. An empty-leg passenger flies on the same aircraft, uses the same FBO terminal and receives the same crew service as any charter client.
The main limit — flexibility
An empty leg has a fixed departure airport, route and time — set by the aircraft's primary schedule and unchangeable. You buy a seat on a flight going from A to B because the operator needs the aircraft there.
Departure time sometimes allows slight movement, but the window is narrower than a standard charter: the aircraft must reach its next confirmed flight on time. Another trait: availability changes daily — a flight listed this morning may be sold or cancelled by evening.
Empty leg versus standard charter
The two logics are opposite. An empty leg puts price first at the cost of flexibility; a standard charter gives full freedom of route and timing but at full price. The choice depends on what matters more for a given trip — saving, or flying strictly to your own plan.
Empty legs are also called repositioning or ferry flights. By definition, a positioning flight is the flying of an aircraft to return to base, deliver it to a customer, move between bases, or go to maintenance. Besides returning to base, a reposition may be needed to fly to the next client — all such segments are potentially available to sell.
How to read an empty-leg offer
A standard empty-leg card holds four elements: departure date, an origin–destination pair, aircraft type and seat count. These decide whether the flight fits: route and date do not change, while aircraft class and capacity tell you whether your group will fit. The range of aircraft is wide — from light types seating 6–8 to heavy ones seating 12–16 — so the same route may be offered in several variants at different prices.
Data discipline matters. Ambiguous or incomplete offers (missing an exact date, route or aircraft) should not be guessed at — they are better dropped, so the selection holds only genuinely available, correctly described flights. Otherwise the customer wastes time on options that do not really exist.
Who empty legs suit
An empty leg is a tool for the flexible. It is ideal when dates and route can be adjusted: a spontaneous trip, a flexible holiday, a business meeting with no fixed timing. In practice offers are short-lived — from a few days to a few hours — and a booking decision usually has to be made within 24–48 hours. Those needing a strict route and time are better served by a standard charter.
A practical nuance: because the aircraft is flying to its next paid trip, a scheduled return leg tailored to you is usually impossible — an empty leg is a one-way segment. The return must be planned separately, worth bearing in mind when booking.
Where empty legs appear most
Availability is not random: empty legs concentrate on popular business and leisure routes with heavier aircraft movement and therefore more repositioning. Major financial centres, in-season resort destinations and routes around large events produce the biggest flow of offers.
Seasonality cuts both ways: at peak demand for a destination, repositioning back the other way also rises. So a flexible traveller willing to fly against the main flow catches the best offers precisely when the main direction is congested. Geographically supply is skewed toward North America — the region accounts for more than two-thirds of the global private flight market, and therefore most repositioning.
Cancellation risk and how to allow for it
An empty leg has a built-in risk: it exists only because the aircraft is flying its main paid trip. If that trip shifts, cancels or changes route, the empty leg may disappear or move. That is the price of the discount, and it must be built into the plan.
The practical takeaway: an empty leg is good where you have a fallback and time flexibility. Industry estimates put the cancellation rate on empty legs at around 10–15% — noticeably higher than on standard charter. For a time-critical trip — an important meeting, a connection — a standard charter with a guarantee is safer. An empty leg is a tool for those who can afford to be flexible.
The environmental angle
Empty legs also have an environmental logic. The reposition happens either way — with or without passengers. By filling an already-scheduled flight, a passenger adds no new flight to the sky but uses one that will occur anyway. This makes an empty leg the most emissions-rational way to use private aviation.
This is not about 'greening' private flight as such, but that among the available options an empty leg creates no additional emissions beyond the already-inevitable. For a client to whom this matters, it is a meaningful argument.
How to search and book
Empty legs appear and disappear fast, so it is more effective to work through a broker who tracks offers and quickly flags matches to your flexible request than to search by hand. The more precisely you set acceptable dates and routes in advance, the faster a suitable flight is found.
Booking usually needs a fast decision and prepayment: because the flight is already scheduled and may be sold to someone else, the confirmation window is narrow. So for empty legs it is important to have readiness for prompt payment and a full passenger list with documents ready in advance.
What to check before booking
Before booking an empty leg, it is worth confirming the key details: the exact departure and arrival airport (sometimes a neighbouring city, not the one you need), the permitted time flexibility, aircraft class and capacity, terms if the main flight cancels, and the baggage and pet policy.
Separately, check who the operator is and its certification — a discount should not mean a compromise on safety. A reputable broker closes these questions, dropping incomplete and dubious offers so you see only genuinely available, correctly described flights.
Common misconceptions about empty legs
There are many myths around empty legs. The first is that they are cheap in absolute terms. In fact, even at a 50–75% discount an empty leg remains a premium service: the aircraft, crew, fuel, insurance and handling are the same as a full charter, so the total often runs into tens of thousands. The discount is large but measured from a high base.
The second misconception is that you can tweak the route or time 'to suit you'. You cannot: the route and airports are fixed by the aircraft's main flight, and the time window is narrow. The third is that quality is lower than a standard charter. It is not: the passenger flies on the same aircraft, with the same crew and service; only the price and flexibility differ, not the level of service.
How to catch an empty leg
The key is flexibility and speed. Because availability appears when others' routes line up and disappears fast, those who can adjust date and route and decide quickly win. The closer your route to an already-scheduled reposition, the larger the discount.
JetHunter compiles and publishes empty-leg selections. Because the data changes daily, correct presentation matters: ambiguous or incomplete offers are not filled in by assumption but dropped, so the list holds only genuinely available flights. That is a distinct value for a client who needs working options, not a promotional list.
«An empty leg is honest only when it states an exact date, route and aircraft. Anything guessed is not an offer but a promise no one will keep.»
— Alexey Mordvintsev, CEO of JetHunter
Author: Alexey Mordvintsev, CEO of JetHunter, President of the Association of Professionals of Executive Aviation Industry (APIDA). Over 14 years in the industry.
