Do empty legs fly from small airports? 29.5% leave airports without airline service
- ✓ 29.5% of distinct empty leg listings left an airport with no scheduled airline service.
- ✓ Small airports took 14.2% of listings.
- ✓ The largest class was medium airports with airline service, at 39.8% of listings.
- ✓ No single operator supplied more than 19.4% of the legs in any airport class.
- ✓ Every figure is a share of distinct listings shown to customers of SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, and no total is quoted.
Do empty legs fly from small airports? On SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, 29.5% of distinct empty leg listings with departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026 left an airport with no scheduled airline service, and small airports alone took 14.2%. Large airports took 30.2%, medium airports with airline service 39.8% and medium airports without it 15.8%. All figures are shares of distinct empty leg listings shown to customers of the marketplace, so they measure supply, the repositioning flights operators list for sale, and not passenger numbers or bookings.
This is a departure-airport analysis, not a route ranking. For the busiest routes, see the Empty Leg Index for October 2026, which ranks corridors every month.
Contents
- Do empty legs fly from small airports?
- Why do so many empty legs leave airports without airline service?
- What do these airport class shares measure?
- What does the airport class mean for a search?
- How were these figures calculated?
- What do people get wrong about where empty legs depart?
- Where can you go deeper on empty leg data?
- Frequently asked questions
Do empty legs fly from small airports?
They do: small airports took 14.2% of distinct empty leg listings, and airports with no scheduled airline service took 29.5%. Large airports held 30.2%, medium airports with airline service 39.8% and medium airports without airline service 15.8%. The shares use the distinct legs that left a large, medium or small airport, which is almost every leg.
The table gives each class of departure airport as a share of all distinct empty legs that left a large, medium or small airport in the window. The largest class, medium airports with airline service, held 39.8% of listings, and the smallest, small airports, held 14.2%.
| Departure airport | Share of listings |
|---|---|
| Large airports | 30.2% |
| Medium airports with airline service | 39.8% |
| Medium airports without airline service | 15.8% |
| Small airports | 14.2% |
Why do so many empty legs leave airports without airline service?
An empty leg starts where the trip before it ended. Private jet passengers often fly into the airport closest to where they are going rather than the nearest airline hub, so the aircraft is left at a field the airlines may not serve, and the repositioning flight starts there. Ranked by share, the classes ran medium airports with airline service, large airports, medium airports without airline service and small airports.
What do these airport class shares measure?
Airport class is the size class stored for each departure airport: large, medium or small, with medium airports split by whether they have scheduled airline service. A share is the number of distinct empty legs departing that class divided by all distinct empty legs departing a large, medium or small airport in the window, so the shares describe where legs start, not where they land. The figures also do not show how many legs were booked: a listing counts whether it sold or not. Each listing is the whole aircraft, offered by the operator that flies it under an FAA Part 135 certificate or its international equivalent, and the operator confirms every booking.
What does the airport class mean for a search?
Search the airports near you, not only the hub. Airports with no scheduled airline service carried 29.5% of listings, so a field close to home can hold the leg you need.
Confirm the departure airport before you book. Small airports took 14.2% of listings, and a small field can sit well away from the city it serves, so plan the drive.
Check the board through the day. New legs are added to the board throughout the day and others are booked.
Price the whole aircraft. Empty legs are priced for the whole aircraft, not by the seat, and taxes and fees are shown at checkout. Prices are often 25 to 75% below a comparable full charter, a range sourced from Avinode marketplace data.
How were these figures calculated?
Source: the database of SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, read-only queries run on October 30, 2026: one checking the mix of listing sources, one producing the figures, and one repeating them without the listing sources whose monthly volume changed sharply during the window. Window: departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026, the three most recent full months. Only listings shown to SkyAccess customers on the empty leg marketplace are counted. Each empty leg is counted once: listings that share origin airport, destination airport, departure time, tail number and aircraft model are one leg, and deleted, cancelled and internal-only listings are excluded. Airport class is the size class stored for each departure airport, with medium airports split by scheduled airline service; almost every leg left a large, medium or small airport, and the few that left a heliport, seaplane base or closed airfield are left out. Every figure is a share of distinct legs, and no total is quoted. Concentration check from the same query: in every airport class, no single operator supplied more than 19.4% of the legs. Recomputed without the listing sources whose monthly volume changed sharply during the window, no share in this post moved by more than 0.1 percentage points and no ranking changed. Counts reflect listings on the marketplace, not flights flown, bookings or passengers.
What do people get wrong about where empty legs depart?
✗ Myth: “Empty legs only leave big commercial airports.”
✓ Reality: 29.5% of distinct empty leg listings with departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026 left an airport with no scheduled airline service, and small airports took 14.2%.
✗ Myth: “Large airports carry most empty legs.”
✓ Reality: Large airports took 30.2% of distinct listings in the same window, behind medium airports with airline service at 39.8%.
✗ Myth: “Empty legs are sold by the seat.”
✓ Reality: Every empty leg on SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, is the whole aircraft at one listed price; taxes and fees are shown at checkout, and prices are often 25 to 75% below a comparable full charter.
✗ Myth: “The marketplace flies the aircraft.”
✓ Reality: No. The marketplace lists the leg; the certified charter operator that flies the aircraft offers it and confirms every booking.
Where can you go deeper on empty leg data?
Each page below measures the same listing supply from another angle, with its own window and method.
- the Empty Leg Index for October 2026: ranks the busiest corridors every month, the route view this post leaves out.
- the airport Empty Leg Index: ranks departure airports by listings, the place view of the same supply.
- the private jet airport directory: lists departure airports and their empty leg pages.
- which aircraft types fly empty legs: breaks listings down by aircraft class, which sets cabin size and range.
- the live empty leg board: lists current departures, each one the whole aircraft at one listed price.
Frequently asked questions
Do empty legs fly from small airports, or only from hubs?
Empty legs do fly from small airports. Small airports took 14.2% of distinct empty leg listings with departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026, and airports with no scheduled airline service took 29.5%.
What share of empty legs leave airports without airline service?
29.5% of distinct empty leg listings left an airport with no scheduled airline service. Medium airports without airline service took 15.8% of all listings on their own.
What share of empty legs leave large airports?
Large airports took 30.2% of distinct empty leg listings in the same window. The largest class was medium airports with airline service, at 39.8%.
What counts as one empty leg in these figures?
Each empty leg is counted once: listings that share origin airport, destination airport, departure time, tail number and aircraft model are one leg, and deleted, cancelled and internal-only listings are left out. Only listings shown to customers of SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, are counted.
Do these figures count bookings or passengers?
These figures do not count bookings or passengers. A listing counts whether it sold or not, so the figures describe supply, the repositioning flights operators list for sale, and not passenger numbers.
Is an empty leg priced by the seat?
Empty legs are not priced by the seat. Every empty leg on SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, is priced for the whole aircraft; taxes and fees are shown at checkout, and prices are often 25 to 75% below a comparable full charter.
Which period do these figures cover?
The figures cover departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026, the three most recent full months. The read-only queries behind them ran on October 30, 2026.
Did leaving out the listing sources that changed sharply move the figures?
The figures held when those sources were left out. Recomputed without the listing sources whose monthly volume changed sharply during the window, no share in this post moved by more than 0.1 percentage points and no ranking changed.
Where can I see which routes carry the most empty legs?
The Empty Leg Index for October 2026 ranks corridors every month and names the busiest routes. This post is a departure-airport analysis, not a route ranking.
Do empty legs fly from small airports? Across distinct empty leg listings with departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026, 29.5% left an airport with no scheduled airline service and 14.2% left a small airport. Large airports took 30.2% and medium airports with airline service 39.8%. On SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, every listing is the whole aircraft, offered by the certified charter operator that flies it, and new legs are added throughout the day. The figures cover departures from July 1, 2026 through September 30, 2026 and count distinct listings shown to customers, not bookings or passengers.
Browse current departures on the SkyAccess empty leg flights page.
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