Snowbird Season Empty Leg Flights: The Numbers Run Opposite to the Migration
Private jet empty legs fly from Florida to the Northeast in peak snowbird season — and from the Northeast to Florida when snowbirds head home. In the SkyAccess database, December 2025 recorded 1,152 unique northbound empty legs (Florida to the Northeast) versus only 412 southbound — a 2.8:1 imbalance. By April and May 2026 the ratio flipped entirely: 1,023 and 1,105 southbound legs respectively, against just 402 and 246 northbound. Understanding this seasonal inversion is the fastest way to find competitively priced empty leg flights on routes that are routinely oversupplied.
How does the snowbird migration create empty leg flights?
Every autumn, hundreds of thousands of retirees and seasonal residents fly from the Northeast to Florida on chartered and fractional aircraft. When an aircraft repositions after dropping passengers in Florida, it flies back north empty. That return flight is an empty leg. The greater the directional imbalance in demand, the more empty legs operators must offer to recover repositioning costs. Snowbird season creates one of the largest seasonal imbalances on the East Coast.
When do empty legs fly from Florida to New York?
Northbound empty legs peak in November and December as aircraft that carried snowbirds south return to Northeast bases. In December 2025 the SkyAccess database recorded 1,152 unique Florida-to-Northeast empty legs — the single busiest month in the snowbird arc. October 2025 logged 706 northbound legs, and November 2025 logged 667.
The busiest Florida departure airports for northbound repositioning flights are Fort Lauderdale Executive (FXE), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL), Palm Beach International (PBI), Miami-Opa Locka Executive (OPF), and Miami International (MIA). On the Northeast arrival side, the highest activity clusters around the New York metro airports and Connecticut reliever fields. Routes such as West Palm Beach to New York and Fort Lauderdale to New York consistently produce the largest northbound empty leg volumes in this window.
When do empty legs fly south to Florida?
Southbound legs build from January onward as charters return aircraft that wintered in the Northeast to Florida ahead of spring and summer demand. The January 2026 count came to 800 northbound-to-south unique legs — a number the February total of 788 nearly matched, followed by 683 in March. The curve steepens further in spring: April 2026 reached 1,023 southbound legs and May 2026 reached 1,105 — the highest southbound month in the arc — while northbound volume collapsed to 246.
Travelers planning a spring return to Florida should begin checking listings in late January. The combination of high southbound volume and low operator yield pressure on these legs often produces the most accessible pricing windows of the year. More context on what drives these patterns is available in our Florida empty leg flights guide and in the focused West Palm Beach guide.
Month-by-month table: Florida to Northeast vs. Northeast to Florida unique empty legs
| Month | Florida to Northeast | Northeast to Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 706 | 260 |
| Nov 2025 | 667 | 432 |
| Dec 2025 | 1,152 | 412 |
| Jan 2026 | 573 | 800 |
| Feb 2026 | 705 | 788 |
| Mar 2026 | 604 | 683 |
| Apr 2026 | 402 | 1,023 |
| May 2026 | 246 | 1,105 |
Source: SkyAccess database, unique legs, Oct 2025 to Aug 2026. Unique leg defined as a distinct combination of origin airport, destination airport, departure time, tail number, and aircraft model. Filters applied: non-cancelled, non-internal, not deleted.
Why does December have more northbound empty legs than southbound?
Aircraft fly southbound with paying snowbird passengers; the repositioning flight north is the empty leg. If one aircraft carries ten snowbirds to Palm Beach, that generates one northbound empty leg on the return. A high volume of southbound charter demand in December therefore creates a corresponding spike in northbound empty legs, not southbound ones. The directional supply surplus always lags the demand direction by one leg.
Methodology
Figures represent unique flight legs in the SkyAccess operator database. A unique leg is defined by the combination of origin airport, destination airport, scheduled departure time, jet tail number, and aircraft model. Cancelled flights and flights marked internal-only are excluded. Airports are classified by ISO 3166-2 region codes: US-FL for Florida; US-NY, US-NJ, US-CT, US-MA, and US-PA for the Northeast corridor. The period covered is October 2025 through May 2026, representing one full snowbird migration arc.
How to cite this data
Edition: SkyAccess Snowbird Empty Leg Analysis, October 2025 to May 2026
URL: https://skyaccess.com/blog/snowbird-season-empty-leg-flights
Press contact: press@theskyaccess.com
Members of the press may reproduce the table above with attribution to SkyAccess and a link to this page.
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