Empty-leg flights, explained.
An empty leg is a private jet flight with no passengers on board: the jet is flying home after dropping a client off, or heading out to collect the next one. The aircraft, crew and flight are already planned. Only the cabin is empty, and that is why a seat on it can cost a fraction of a charter.
Updated
Ibiza → BudapestChartered by one client, paid in full.
Budapest → IbizaThe jet flies back empty. Those are the seats members book.
Where do empty legs come from?
Most private jet trips are one way. A client charters a jet from Ibiza to Budapest, lands and goes home. The jet still has to get back to Ibiza, or on to wherever its next client is waiting, and it flies there with nobody on board. That flight is the empty leg.
The trade also calls them positioning flights, ferry flights or deadheads. They happen every day on busy routes, because a jet serves one client at a time and a trip rarely ends where the next one begins. How many flights run empty is hard to pin down; one large charter broker has estimated that 30 to 50 percent of the charter fleet often flies empty.
In Europe they follow the seasons. In summer, jets carry clients to Ibiza, Mykonos and the Riviera, fly back empty, then fly out empty again to bring them home. In winter, the same happens around the Alps.
Why is a seat on an empty leg so much cheaper?
Because the flight is paid for either way. A one-way charter is usually priced to cover the jet’s return, and the positioning flight goes ahead whether anyone is on board or not. Any seat sold on it is revenue that would otherwise not exist, so it can be priced far below a charter.
Sold as a whole aircraft, an empty leg typically goes for 25 to 75 percent less than the same jet on charter. Sold by the seat, the gap is wider still, because you pay for your place in the cabin rather than for the jet.
| Route | One seat | Whole jet |
|---|---|---|
| Budapest → IbizaCitation XLS+ | from€990 | ~€13,500 |
| Paris → IbizaCitation XLS+ | from€690 | ~€11,000 |
| Milan → MykonosChallenger 350 | from€890 | ~€18,000 |
Example routes and prices. Live inventory opens at launch.
A whole jet, or one seat?
Most empty legs are still sold the way charters are: the whole aircraft or nothing. Even at a discount, that means paying for every seat, on a route and a date someone else chose, often with two or three days’ notice. For one or two travellers the numbers rarely work.
Sold seat by seat, the same flight becomes something one person can use. That is the model Jet4You is built on.
| Charter | Empty leg, whole jet | By the seat, with Jet4You | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Route and time | You choose | The operator’s schedule | The operator’s schedule |
| You pay for | The whole aircraft | The whole aircraft, discounted | Your seats only |
| Notice | Whenever you book | Often 24–72 hours | Often 24–72 hours |
| Can it be cancelled? | On your contract’s terms | Yes, if the original trip changes | Yes, and the seat price is refunded in full |
What’s the catch?
Empty legs are conditional by nature. Before you plan around one, know what that means.
- The route is fixed.
- The jet flies where its schedule sends it, with no detours. It suits you when its route happens to be yours.
- Times can move.
- An empty leg follows the booking that created it. If that client’s plans change, the departure can shift, occasionally at short notice.
- It can be cancelled.
- If someone charters the jet for that exact route, or for technical or weather reasons, the leg may not fly. With Jet4You, your seat price is then refunded in full.
- Notice is short.
- Many empty legs appear only 24 to 72 hours before departure, once the operator knows the paid trip is going ahead.
- It is one way.
- The flight back is a separate question, so keep a plan for the return.
- Luggage space is finite.
- Light jets carry less luggage than an airliner, and soft bags fit where hard cases do not.
How do you get a seat on one?
Short notice favours people who are ready before the flight exists, so Jet4You starts with you rather than the flight.
Tell us where you fly.
Your home city, up to three destinations and how many of you travel. Joining is free.
Hear first.
When a jet repositions on your route, the members on that route hear about it first.
Pay once it is confirmed.
Your seat is booked, and charged, only after the operator has confirmed the flight and your seat.
Your odds go up if you declare more than one destination, keep a day or two of flexibility and answer quickly when a match comes in.