How to Book an Empty Leg Flight

Start on a marketplace that shows real, bookable inventory rather than a request form. An empty leg is created when a chartered jet has to fly a leg with no paying passengers, most often to return home or to reposition for its next trip, so the supply changes constantly as new charters are booked. Search the live empty leg marketplace, where 5,000+ live empty leg flights from 900+ FAA Part 135 (and international equivalent) certified charter operators are aggregated in one place and updated continuously.

Because every listing ties back to an operator's confirmed schedule, what you see is genuine availability, not an estimate. Browse by departure region first to understand what is actually moving on the dates near your trip before you narrow down.

Once you are looking at live inventory, narrow it to what fits your trip. The core filters are:

• Route: your departure and arrival cities, plus nearby alternate airports
• Date and time window: the wider the window, the more matches
• Aircraft class: turboprop, light, midsize, super-midsize, or heavy jet depending on passenger count and distance
• Passenger count: to rule out cabins that are too small

Aircraft class is the main driver of price range. As a general guide, light jets sit at the lower end, midsize and super-midsize in the middle, and heavy or ultra-long-range jets at the top. Empty legs price 25 to 75% below a comparable full charter, so the same cabin you would otherwise pay full charter rates for becomes far more attainable when it is flying as a repositioning leg.

Empty legs are perishable and route specific, and the best-priced ones are booked quickly. If nothing on your exact route is listed today, set a route alert instead of checking back manually. When a matching flight posts, you are notified so you can move before it is gone.

Alerts are what turn empty leg booking from luck into a repeatable strategy. Popular corridors regenerate inventory often, so a standing alert on your route captures new listings the moment operators release them. This is the difference between a traveler who occasionally stumbles on a deal and one who consistently flies private for a fraction of full charter cost.

Empty legs depend on the original charter that created them, so availability can change if the anchor trip shifts. Before you count on a flight, confirm it is still live. On SkyAccess this confirmation happens directly against the operating carrier's schedule, so you are verifying real status rather than a stale listing.

At this stage you also confirm the specifics that matter for your trip: exact departure window, the two airports served, cabin configuration and seat count, baggage capacity, and any pet or catering needs. Because every operator on the marketplace holds FAA Part 135 or the international equivalent certification, the safety and operating standard is consistent across the flights you compare.

When the flight is confirmed, you reserve it and pay to lock it in. Booking an empty leg is a fixed, whole-aircraft price for that specific repositioning flight, not a per-seat fare, and once payment clears the aircraft is yours for that leg. You then receive your flight confirmation with departure FBO or terminal, timing, and operator contact details.

From there it works like any private charter: arrive at the private terminal shortly before departure, skip commercial lines, and board directly. The main structural trade-off to understand is that an empty leg is tied to the operator's repositioning schedule, so the routing and timing are set by that flight rather than fully customized to you.

Flexibility is the single strongest lever on empty leg pricing and availability. The travelers who fly private cheapest are the ones who bend on the details a fixed itinerary cannot:

• Be loose on date and time: a one to three day window multiplies your matches
• Accept nearby airports: a metro area often has several private-capable fields, and operators reposition to whichever suits their next trip
• Stay open on aircraft class: take the cabin that is actually flying your route rather than holding out for one specific model
• Book on shorter notice: many empty legs surface only days or hours ahead, which is exactly why they are discounted

Apply these and the 25 to 75% savings band moves toward its upper end, up to 75% off a comparable full charter. Rigidity is what pushes you back toward full charter pricing; flexibility is what keeps you in empty leg territory.