The "empty leg" is the most misunderstood corner of private aviation. Done right, it gives you a Citation Latitude from Nice to Geneva for less than the cost of a single business-class ticket. Done wrong, it costs more than a quote you could have had five days earlier.
What an empty leg actually is
When an operator flies a chartered aircraft from A to B, that aircraft eventually has to return — empty — to its home base, or reposition for its next paid flight. That return or reposition leg is the empty leg. Operators discount it heavily because the alternative is flying it with no passengers at all.
You are buying inventory that is already going where you want to go. That is the catch and the savings, both.
Where they appear in Europe
The most reliable empty-leg routes in the regions we cover:
- Le Bourget → Nice (and back) — week-round, particularly Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.
- Geneva → Le Bourget — driven by Swiss-French banking traffic.
- Nice → Geneva or Zurich — winter peaks, ski-season heavy.
- London (Farnborough / Luton) → Nice — May through September, every week.
- Olbia / Cagliari → north — late August, every operator repositioning.
What you will rarely see: long-haul empty legs. Transatlantic and Middle East returns exist but are short-window, irregular, and usually consumed before they ever surface to clients.
The honest economics
A retail charter quote, Nice-Geneva, light jet: ~€11,500–€13,500. The same routing on an empty leg, same week: ~€3,200–€4,800.
The discount is real. The trade-offs are also real:
- Time is rigid. You move within the operator's window, not yours. Most are ±2 hours of a fixed slot.
- Aircraft is fixed. You don't shop cabin class — you take what is positioning.
- They cancel. If the paid leg in front of yours cancels or moves, the empty leg evaporates. Build a refundable fallback.
When empty legs save money (and when they cost you)
Save money when:
- You are flexible on date by ± 24 hours.
- The route is one of the heavy-traffic corridors above.
- You are travelling solo or two-up — cabin size is rarely a constraint.
Cost more than a normal quote when:
- You force a routing the operator wasn't going to fly anyway.
- You book a "ferry positioning" they have to add — that is not an empty leg, it is a one-way charter at almost full price.
- You add a stop or schedule change.
The rule we use internally: if the operator can list five names of crew, fuel stop, paid passengers on the front leg, and aircraft registration — it is a real empty leg. If they cannot, it is a one-way at a discount.
What we do
We hold a feed from twenty-three operators across France, Switzerland, the UK, Italy and the Gulf. Empty legs surface to us between 48 hours and 10 days before departure. When you tell us your preferred routes and a tolerance window, we put you on the alert list and message the moment a fit appears.
There is no signup, no fee. We earn a placement commission from the operator on the flight you take. The price you pay is the price the operator quotes — we do not mark it up.
A worked example
A client wanted Geneva → Ibiza, late August, two passengers, return four days later. We quoted both legs:
- Retail charter, both ways: €34,000.
- Empty leg out (Geneva → Olbia, redirect to Ibiza, +50nm reposition): €6,400.
- Empty leg back (Ibiza → Geneva direct): €4,900.
- Total: €11,300.
The savings came from the fact that two operators were already repositioning aircraft to and from Sardinia on those dates. We did not invent the routes — we matched the client to inventory that already existed.
What to ask before you commit
- What is the aircraft registration, and who is the operator?
- What is the paid leg in front of and behind this flight?
- What is the cancellation policy if the paid leg moves?
- What is the maximum repositioning tolerance you have?
- Is the price all-in (fuel surcharge, handling, catering)?
If the answers are vague, the discount is not real.
If you want to be on our empty-leg alert list for your home airports, WhatsApp us. We will set it up the same day.