Every charter flight produces two sector costs: the outbound journey and the return positioning. When an aircraft flies a client from Paris to Monaco and then returns empty to its base in Geneva, that return sector — the 'empty leg' — costs the operator fuel, crew time, and landing fees with no revenue. Rather than absorb the loss entirely, operators sell empty legs at discounts ranging from 30% to 65% below standard charter pricing. The European private aviation market generates several hundred empty legs per week, concentrated on the high-traffic corridors: Paris–London, Nice–Geneva, London–Ibiza, Geneva–Mykonos. FFGR Jets aggregates this availability and surfaces it to clients who have schedule flexibility.
What Defines an Empty Leg
An empty leg is always a consequence of a paid charter. The aircraft has been contracted to carry a client from point A to point B; the return flight from B to its base, or the positioning flight to the next charter departure, is the empty leg. The critical implication: the departure airport, destination, date, and departure time are all fixed by the primary charter. They cannot be changed. The empty leg buyer is committing to a specific routing at a specific time — this is the trade-off for the discount.
Empty legs are most common on aircraft operating from major hubs — London Farnborough, Paris Le Bourget, Nice, Geneva, Zurich — because these airports generate the highest volume of outbound charters. Conversely, Mediterranean and ski-resort airports (Mykonos, Ibiza, Chambéry, Figari) generate high volumes of inbound charters during peak season, which in turn create empty legs back to northern Europe at the end of the season.
European Routes With the Highest Empty-Leg Frequency
The Paris–London corridor produces the most empty legs of any city-pair in Europe — a direct consequence of the volume of one-way charters and corporate travel between the two capitals. Nice–Paris and Nice–Geneva are the highest-frequency Mediterranean empty legs during the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix periods. In high summer, Ibiza and Mykonos generate significant volumes of empty legs back to London, Paris, and Zurich.
In the ski season (December–March), Chambéry (CMF), Grenoble (GNB), and Sion (SIR) see high incoming traffic from London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt — and corresponding empty legs on the return. Courchevel's altiport (CVF) generates the most expensive and most coveted ski-season empty legs: an outbound from CVF to London Farnborough on a Sunday afternoon, available at 40–50% off, is one of the most consistently sought-after seasonal opportunities in European private aviation.
How to Book an Empty Leg With FFGR Jets
Empty legs are time-sensitive: the window between the operator listing the leg and the client confirming is measured in hours, not days. FFGR Jets operates a monitored empty-leg service for clients on our standing list — when an empty leg matching your preferred corridor appears, we notify you by WhatsApp and hold the option for a defined period to allow confirmation. No commitment is required until that notification arrives.
The booking process is simplified compared to a full charter: payment is due immediately on confirmation, and no changes are possible to the routing, date, or departure time. Cancellation is typically non-refundable within 24 hours. For clients who travel regularly on predictable corridors — Paris–London weekly, Nice–Geneva in the summer, Alpine returns in winter — we recommend registering the routes in advance so that matching empty legs are surfaced before they reach the general market.
Access Europe's Best Empty Legs with FFGR Jets
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