Do empty legs fly to airports with short runways? 3.2% land where the longest runway is under 5,000 feet
- ✓ 3.2% of distinct empty leg listings landed at an airport whose longest runway is under 5,000 feet.
- ✓ 33.0% landed where the longest runway is under 7,000 feet.
- ✓ 67.0% landed where it is 7,000 feet or longer.
- ✓ No single operator supplied more than 16.5% of the legs in any band.
- ✓ 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 to airports with short runways? On SkyAccess, the empty leg marketplace, 3.2% of distinct empty leg listings with departures from November 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026 landed at an airport whose longest runway is under 5,000 feet, and 33.0% landed where it is under 7,000 feet. 67.0% landed where the longest runway is 7,000 feet or longer and 29.8% where it is 5,000 to 6,999 feet. 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 runway-length analysis, not a route ranking. For the busiest routes, see the Empty Leg Index for November 2026, which ranks corridors every month.
Contents
- Do empty legs fly to airports with short runways?
- Why do so few empty legs land on short runways?
- What do these runway shares measure?
- What does runway length mean for a search?
- How were these figures calculated?
- What do people get wrong about empty legs and short runways?
- Where can you go deeper on empty leg data?
- Frequently asked questions
Do empty legs fly to airports with short runways?
A few do: 3.2% of distinct empty leg listings landed at an airport whose longest runway is under 5,000 feet, and 33.0% landed where it is under 7,000 feet. 29.8% landed where the longest runway is 5,000 to 6,999 feet and 67.0% where it is 7,000 feet or longer. The shares use the distinct legs whose arrival airport has a stored runway length; 0.1% of legs had none and are left out.
The table gives each runway band of the arrival airport as a share of all distinct empty legs with a known arrival runway length in the window. The length is that of the longest runway at the airport, as stored for each airport, so the bands describe where legs land, not where they depart.
| Longest runway at the arrival airport | Share of listings |
|---|---|
| Under 5,000 feet | 3.2% |
| 5,000 to 6,999 feet | 29.8% |
| 7,000 feet or longer | 67.0% |
Why do so few empty legs land on short runways?
An empty leg is a repositioning flight: the aircraft flies back to its base or on to its next pickup, so it lands where the next trip starts or where the aircraft is kept. Larger and heavier jets need more runway, so a short field suits fewer aircraft, and most legs land at airports whose runways serve a wide range of jets. Ranked by share, the bands ran 7,000 feet or longer, 5,000 to 6,999 feet and under 5,000 feet.
What do these runway shares measure?
Runway length here is the stored length, in feet, of the longest runway at the arrival airport, grouped in three bands: under 5,000 feet, 5,000 to 6,999 feet, and 7,000 feet or longer. A share is the number of distinct empty legs landing in that band divided by all distinct empty legs with a known arrival runway length in the window. The figures say nothing about the runway surface, the weather or how an aircraft performs on a given day. 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 runway length mean for a search?
Look past a short field to the airports near it. 3.2% of listings landed where the longest runway is under 5,000 feet, so for a small field, an airport with a longer runway nearby widens the search.
Ask the operator about the runway. A short runway can limit what an aircraft carries on a given day, and the operator confirms every booking; 33.0% of listings landed where the longest runway is under 7,000 feet.
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 November 5, 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 November 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026, the twelve full months before this analysis. 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. Runway length is the length stored for the longest runway at each arrival airport, in feet, grouped under 5,000 feet, 5,000 to 6,999 feet, and 7,000 feet or longer; 0.1% of legs in the window had an arrival airport without a stored runway length and are left out. Every figure is a share of distinct legs, and no total is quoted. Concentration check from the same query: in every band, no single operator supplied more than 16.5% 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 0.3 percentage points and no ranking changed. Counts reflect listings on the marketplace, not flights flown, bookings or passengers.
What do people get wrong about empty legs and short runways?
✗ Myth: “Empty legs never land on short runways.”
✓ Reality: 3.2% of distinct empty leg listings with departures from November 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026 landed at an airport whose longest runway is under 5,000 feet, and 33.0% where it is under 7,000 feet.
✗ Myth: “Most empty legs land at small fields with short runways.”
✓ Reality: 67.0% of distinct listings landed where the longest runway is 7,000 feet or longer in the same window.
✗ 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 November 2026: ranks the busiest corridors every month, the route view this post leaves out.
- which kinds of airports empty legs depart from: splits listings by the size class of the departure airport and its airline service.
- 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
How often do empty legs fly to airports with short runways?
A few do: 3.2% of distinct empty leg listings with departures from November 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026 landed at an airport whose longest runway is under 5,000 feet. 33.0% landed where it is under 7,000 feet.
What share of empty legs land where the runway is 7,000 feet or longer?
67.0% of distinct empty leg listings landed at an airport whose longest runway is 7,000 feet or longer. The other 33.0% landed where it is shorter.
How is runway length measured here?
Runway length is the stored length of the longest runway at the arrival airport, in feet. Legs are grouped under 5,000 feet, 5,000 to 6,999 feet, and 7,000 feet or longer.
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 November 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026, the twelve full months before this analysis. The read-only queries behind them ran on November 5, 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 0.3 percentage points and no ranking changed.
Where can I see which routes carry the most empty legs?
The Empty Leg Index for November 2026 ranks corridors every month and names the busiest routes. This post is a runway-length analysis, not a route ranking.
Do empty legs fly to airports with short runways? Across distinct empty leg listings with departures from November 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026, 3.2% landed at an airport whose longest runway is under 5,000 feet and 33.0% where it is under 7,000 feet. 67.0% landed where it is 7,000 feet or longer. 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.
Browse current departures on the SkyAccess empty leg flights page.
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