Positioning flights — also called ferry flights or repositioning sectors — are a fundamental but frequently misunderstood element of private aviation economics. A positioning flight occurs when an aircraft must fly empty from its base (or its last client drop-off) to the client's departure airport. If a client wants to depart from Zurich on a Gulfstream G550 based in Paris, the aircraft must position from Paris to Zurich before the client boards; the positioning sector from Paris to Zurich is typically charged to the client as part of the overall quote. Understanding how positioning works, when it adds cost, and how to minimise it (or use it advantageously as an empty leg opportunity) is essential for sophisticated private aviation clients.
How Positioning Costs Are Structured
Positioning flights are typically charged at the same rate-per-hour as the occupied flight, though some operators charge a reduced rate (70-80% of the standard hourly rate) for repositioning sectors. The cost appears in the charter quote either as a separate line item ("ferry flight: Paris-Zurich, 45 min, €X") or embedded in the total without explicit breakdown. FFGR Jets always provides transparent positioning cost disclosure in all quotes: the client sees the positioning cost, the occupied sector cost, and the landing/handling fees as separate line items.
The size of the positioning cost relative to the total trip cost depends on the geography. For sectors where aircraft bases are well-distributed relative to client demand (Europe's major private aviation markets: Paris, London, Geneva, Nice, Milan, Frankfurt), positioning is typically a single sector of 30-90 minutes and adds 10-20% to the total cost. For charter originations in less commonly requested departure cities (Reykjavik, Tallinn, Casablanca, or a remote airstrip in the Dolomites), positioning can represent 40-60% of the total trip cost because the operator must fly a long sector empty to meet the client.
Minimising Positioning Costs: Aircraft Base Selection
The most effective way to minimise positioning costs is to select an aircraft based near the departure airport. FFGR Jets' sourcing process always begins with operator proximity: if a client wants to depart from Nice, FFGR Jets queries its operator network for aircraft available in Nice or Cannes before considering Paris or Geneva as the nearest alternative base. A Challenger 350 based at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport incurs zero positioning cost for a Nice departure; the same aircraft based in Paris incurs the Paris-Nice positioning sector (approximately 75 minutes) in the client's cost.
For clients with regular routings, FFGR Jets can structure preferred operator agreements where an aircraft is based in the client's primary departure city (effectively on retainer) for a fixed monthly fee that is credited against charter costs. This "home-based aircraft" model eliminates positioning costs entirely for the client's most frequent departure point and is economically rational for clients who fly 80+ hours annually from a consistent base airport.
Using Positioning as an Empty Leg Opportunity
The inverse of a positioning cost is a positioning opportunity: when an aircraft must reposition from a drop-off to its next charter origination, the operator sometimes makes that repositioning sector available as an empty leg at a significant discount (typically 30-70% below the standard charter rate). Empty legs arise most frequently when aircraft are positioned out of high-demand delivery points (Nice after the Monaco Grand Prix, Geneva after Davos, Dubai after Gulf season) to return to their base or to meet another charter.
FFGR Jets maintains a real-time empty leg inventory from its operator network and alerts clients with matching route requirements when relevant empty legs become available. The limitation of empty leg travel is schedule inflexibility: the aircraft must depart on the operator's repositioning timeline, not the client's preferred departure time, and the sector is fixed (the drop-off point and the next charter origination are both fixed). For flexible clients whose schedule can accommodate the operator's timing, empty legs represent the best value in private aviation — the quality of the aircraft is identical to a full-rate charter.
Round-Trip Positioning: When It Makes Sense
For clients making a single-day or overnight trip, the aircraft typically waits at the destination rather than returning to base — called "waiting on the ground." The operator charges an aircraft-on-ground (AOG) fee for the wait: this includes crew hotel and per diems, and typically ranges from €500-1,500 per day for a midsize jet, €1,500-3,000 for a heavy jet. For short waits (same-day return, overnight), AOG is always cheaper than two positioning flights.
For extended stays (3+ nights), the economics shift: operators may prefer to reposition the aircraft to a base rather than paying the accumulating AOG cost, and the client incurs inbound and outbound positioning fees rather than the AOG. FFGR Jets analyses the optimal structure for each trip: the tipping point between AOG and positioning depends on the sector length, the AOG daily rate, and the availability of the aircraft for other charters during the client's stay. A transparent analysis is provided in every FFGR Jets quote for extended-stay programmes.
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