Empty leg flights are one of private aviation's most misunderstood offerings — simultaneously one of the industry's greatest opportunities for cost reduction and one of its most operationally constrained products. For UHNW clients with scheduling flexibility, empty legs represent the clearest path to private aviation savings without compromising on the private jet experience itself.
What Is an Empty Leg Flight?
An empty leg (also called a "deadhead flight" or "ferry flight") occurs when a private jet is repositioned without passengers. This happens when: a client books a one-way charter from City A to City B, and the aircraft must return to City B empty; a client charters an aircraft for a round trip with return earlier than expected, leaving the scheduled return sector empty; or an aircraft requires maintenance repositioning to a specific base.
The operator has already priced the primary charter and needs to cover operating costs on the return or repositioning sector — this creates the incentive to sell the empty leg at a significant discount. Discounts typically range from 50% to 75% of the equivalent on-demand charter rate for the same sector. For frequently travelled routes (London-Nice, Paris-Monaco, New York-Miami), empty legs are available multiple times daily during peak seasons.
How to Access Empty Legs: Platforms and Direct Broker Relationships
Empty leg notification systems operate at two levels. Public platforms (Victor, Jettly, Private Fly, and PrivateFly's empty leg section) aggregate empty leg availability from multiple operators — these reach a wide audience but the most attractive sectors sell within hours of listing. Direct broker relationships are more effective: a trusted broker like FFGR Jets receives pre-market empty leg availability directly from operator operations departments — before the sector is listed publicly.
The key limitation is scheduling inflexibility. Empty leg departure times are fixed by the originating charter booking and may change with only hours' notice if the primary charter itinerary changes. Empty legs are appropriate for clients who can build personal itineraries around available sectors — they are not appropriate for clients with fixed departure requirements or time-critical business travel.
Empty Legs: Operational Limitations and FFGR Jets' Approach
Empty legs carry specific constraints: (1) the departure airport, destination, and approximate departure time are fixed by the primary charter; (2) changes to the originating charter automatically cancel the empty leg — the client's booking can disappear with minimal notice; (3) route flexibility is zero — empty legs are point-to-point, not customisable; (4) the aircraft type is determined by the operator's fleet, not the client's preference.
FFGR Jets provides empty leg access through our operator relationships as a supplement to the primary on-demand charter service. For clients with sufficient scheduling flexibility, we proactively match upcoming travel plans against available empty legs — offering savings of 50-75% when the match works. For time-critical or high-complexity travel, empty legs are not the appropriate solution and the standard on-demand charter remains the reference product.
