Empty Leg Guides · 13 min read
Home / Empty Leg Flights
By Pat Sinnott, Founder of Peak Aviation Solutions. Commercial multi-engine rated pilot, 21 years in private aviation, ran a 21-aircraft charter fleet before starting Peak in Bozeman, Montana.
Last updated: July 7, 2026
Empty leg flights are the one corner of private aviation where the discounts are real, and also the corner with the most misleading marketing on the internet. “Up to 75% off” is technically true and practically rare. Stale listings outnumber live ones. And the restrictions that decide whether a deal works for you almost never appear in the ad.
I broker these flights for a living, from a desk wired into hundreds of operators’ schedules, and this guide is the complete picture: what empty leg flights are, what they actually cost, where they come from, how to find and book one safely, and who should walk away. Everything here comes from our own bookings and our own feed, not from recycled marketing claims. By the end you’ll know the 5-Day Rule, the three answers that protect any booking, and the honest math behind the discounts.
Empty leg flights are repositioning flights: private jets that must fly empty to their next trip or home base, sold at a discount because some revenue beats none. Real-world savings run 25 to 50 percent below retail charter, with rigid departure windows set by the paying trip that created each leg.
In this guide: what an empty leg is, the real discounts, where legs come from, the restrictions, how to find and book one, the nationwide picture, who they’re for, and FAQ.
What is an empty leg flight?
A private jet finishes a paying trip and is now in the wrong city. It has to fly, empty, to its next pickup or back to its home base. That flight happens whether anyone buys it or not, so operators sell it at a discount rather than eat the whole cost.
That’s the entire concept. You’re not asking anyone to fly you somewhere cheaply; you’re paying for a flight that was already going to happen. Pilots and brokers also call these deadhead flights, ferry legs, or repositioning flights.
The full definition, including the story of a client who flew Missoula to the Bay Area for $8,500 on a trip that retails at $18,000, lives in what is an empty leg flight.
How big are the discounts on empty leg flights?
Here’s what our own quote and booking history says, as opposed to what advertising says: a realistic range is 25 to 50 percent below retail charter, deepest on short notice.
The timing pattern behind that range is the single most useful thing to learn. A leg posted weeks out sits near retail, because the operator can still sell that flight as a full-price charter.
Inside about five days, prices start moving. Inside 72 hours, you have maximum leverage, because the alternative to your money is an empty cabin. We call it the 5-Day Rule.
There’s a floor under the discounts too. Operators resist selling below an aircraft’s direct operating cost, the raw fuel-maintenance-crew price of flying at all, which is roughly $1,800 an hour on a Phenom 300 that retails around $3,900 to $4,200. The famous 75-percent-off leg is what it looks like when a desperate operator breaks that floor with hours to spare: real, occasional, never the plan.
Season shapes the supply as much as timing shapes the price. Around every major holiday, and through any resort market’s peak months, heavier paid flying produces heavier repositioning, which means more legs to choose from exactly when you’re most likely to travel.
Real corridors, real all-in numbers, straight from our own booking and quote files:
| Corridor (light jet class) | Regular charter, all-in | Empty leg |
|---|---|---|
| Missoula to Bay Area | about $18,000 | $8,500 (a real 2026 booking) |
| LA area to Las Vegas | $18,000 to $23,000 | $5,000 to $7,000 typical |
| Bozeman to Phoenix/Scottsdale | $22,000 to $24,500 (our booking average) | discounts follow the 5-Day Rule |
Every figure is a real quote or a real booking, taxes and fees included. The complete economics, including who owns the airplanes and why that matters, are in how empty leg flights work.
Where empty leg flights come from
Most charter aircraft are owned by individuals who lease them to operators, and the operator’s first job is making that owner money. A repositioning flight earns the owner nothing, so selling it, even deeply discounted, turns a guaranteed loss into found revenue. That’s why the discounts are genuine and why operators will never simply discount everything.
The legs themselves come from three kinds of aircraft. Local operators based on an airfield generate classic “aircraft needs to get home” returns. Floating fleets with no home base scatter one-off repositioning hops wherever their bookings chain them. And transient aircraft, jets sitting between trips in a city that isn’t home, produce some of the most negotiable opportunities of all, because operators hate parked airplanes.
The scale becomes obvious once you follow a single airplane. One light jet in one ordinary week can create two discounted opportunities: a deadhead home after a Monday drop-off, then a repositioning hop before a Friday pickup, each with its own direction, date, and window. Multiply by the thousands of charter aircraft flying this week, and the daily flood of legs stops being mysterious and starts being an inventory you can watch.
One wrinkle worth knowing: some legs are “subject to owner approval,” and an owner can reclaim their airplane. It’s cost us a booking only twice in recent years, but it’s one more reason a leg isn’t real until someone verifies it with the operator.
The restrictions that decide everything
Every empty leg restriction traces to one fact: the schedule belongs to the paying trip that created the leg, not to you.
The departure window is narrow. Usually one to three hours on a specific date, dictated by the operator’s surrounding commitments. If your day can’t bend to the window, the deal doesn’t exist for you.
Legs vanish. Good ones sell in hours, and twice this year we’ve watched Montana travelers think for two days and lose the leg entirely. Others evaporate because the primary trip changed, through no fault of anyone’s.
The paperwork is where protection lives. Three answers, demanded before you pay anyone, filter out most of what goes wrong in this market:
- What’s the exact departure window? If the answer is vaguer than a two or three hour block, the leg hasn’t been verified against the operator’s schedule.
- What happens if the primary trip cancels? Get it in writing, and ask separately what your seller will do for you if the leg vanishes.
- Is the specific crew safety-rated? Ask for the crew-level ARGUS or Wyvern report, not just the operator’s rating. An approved operator can still have a crew pairing that fails.
All three, plus the payment mechanics and red flags, are explained fully in how to book empty leg flights.
At Peak, an empty leg gets the identical safety file as a full-price charter, and when a booked leg collapsed under one of our clients, we sourced a replacement the same day, held his price, and absorbed the difference. How a provider answers that scenario tells you everything you need to know about them.
How to find empty leg flights
Hundreds of empty leg flights get posted across the country every single day; on one July 2026 day, our feed showed 456 on just the seven-day view. The inventory is real. The problem is that it changes hourly and most public marketplaces show stale listings with the restrictions stripped out.
Public marketplaces have three recurring problems worth knowing before you browse them: listings lag behind operators’ actual schedules, departure-window restrictions get stripped out because “Saturday!” sells better than “Saturday, 1 to 3 pm,” and anything sold by the seat carries regulatory baggage most of those companies haven’t survived. Treat every public listing as unconfirmed until someone checks it against the operator’s calendar.
The reliable approach is getting filtered inventory pushed to you. Our alert system ties into operators’ scheduling systems directly, and more than 500 subscribers already use it:
- Pick any city pair in the country and watch it in both directions.
- The system covers everything within 100 miles of both ends of your route.
- Alerts arrive by email three times a week, tuned to your preferences.
- When something fits, reply; we verify the leg with the operator, and a complete proposal with aircraft and pricing usually lands within the hour.
Subscribing is free on our empty legs page, with no membership and no dues, unlike the apps charging four-figure annual fees for waitlist access. Where I look, what marketplaces get wrong, and how to tune your setup are all in how to find empty leg flights.
How booking an empty leg works
The process is faster than most people expect: inquire, we confirm the leg and its real window with the operator, you get an all-in proposal (federal excise tax and segment fees included, no trailing surprises), you sign by DocuSign and pay, we cross-check every document, and your itinerary arrives with the FBO address and tail number.
Moving fast is easier when you have five details ready: origin and destination, your date with an honest departure-time window, passenger count including kids and pets, any unusual luggage, and whether you want catering or a car waiting. With those in hand, the first conversation takes five minutes.
Same-day is routine. A Bozeman client once called during a family medical emergency needing Seattle that day; an airplane that had just landed here needed to get home to the Seattle area, and he was airborne inside three hours of his first call.
The full walk-through, including payment mechanics, the cancellation table, and six red flags to watch for with any provider, is in how to book empty leg flights.
Empty leg flights nationwide
We’re based in Bozeman, and the address confuses people, so let me be direct: this is a nationwide operation. About 80 percent of our flying happens outside Montana, our clients run corridors like Bozeman to Charleston, Cleveland to Phoenix, Denver to Lancaster, and St. Augustine to New York, and the alert system watches every US market plus international opportunities. Whether your lane is a snowbird commute between the Midwest and Arizona or a run up and down a coast, the machinery is identical: same feed, same verification, same within-the-hour proposals.
The volume data makes the point better than I can. From our feed on a single July day, here’s how many empty leg flights sat on the seven-day view within 100 miles of four markets:
| Area (100-mile radius) | Legs posted, next 7 days |
|---|---|
| Teterboro / New York | 165 |
| Van Nuys / Los Angeles | 124 |
| Miami | 113 |
| Bozeman | 71 |
If you’re near New York, LA, San Francisco, or Florida, this market is deepest exactly where you live.
The Bozeman and Mountain West corner
That said, home is home, and nobody covers it like we do. Bozeman’s strongest corridors run to Salt Lake City, the Bay Area, and Arizona, with Seattle and Denver appearing regularly. Peak season runs from just before Independence Day into late August, when Yellowstone, Glacier, and Big Sky traffic floods the feed with repositioning legs, and every major holiday produces its own surge. Seventy-one legs in a single July week is what full song sounds like here.
One review from our empty legs page says what we hope every client would:
“Pat’s communication is great and he has found us attractively priced flights.”
Empty legs vs standard charter vs jet cards
Where does this fit among your options? A quick honest comparison from someone who sells only one of the three:
| Empty leg | Standard charter | Jet card / fractional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 25 to 50% below retail | Retail, all-in when quoted properly | Transparent rates, plus membership costs and, increasingly, fuel surcharges |
| Schedule control | The leg’s window rules | Fully yours | Yours, with lead-time rules and short-notice penalties |
| Commitment | None; pay per trip | None; pay per trip | Upfront deposit or share purchase |
| Best for | Flexible trips, found-money savings | Must-make dates | 60+ flying hours a year |
The honest read: if you fly more than about 60 hours a year, a jet card or fractional share deserves a look, and I’ve told clients exactly that. Below that line, pay-as-you-go wins, with no initiation fees, no monthly dues, and no fuel surcharges, and empty legs are the discount layer on top. You’ll never get hit with a surcharge here; the price you sign is the price.
Who empty leg flights are for
The honest fit test: can you decide fast and flex a little? The winning profile treats these as found money, keeps plus or minus a day of date flexibility, accepts 100 miles of airport radius, and says yes within hours when the right leg appears.
Who shouldn’t rely on one: anyone with a wedding, a board meeting, or a fixed vacation window. Book a standard charter for must-make trips; an empty leg is a gift when it appears and a gamble as a plan. Most of our clients run both: charters for the dates that matter, alerts humming in the background for the trips that can float.
Even jet card members and fractional owners subscribe, using empty legs as supplemental lift alongside their programs. There’s no wrong profile here except the traveler who needs certainty and won’t accept that this market can’t sell it.
And a candid calibration you won’t find on marketing pages: empty leg flights are a small slice of even our bookings. The stars have to align. When they do, the payoff is outsized, and the people it happens to are the ones who were positioned, not the ones who were lucky.
The deeper habit behind all of it: winners quit hunting individual flights and put corridors on watch instead. Set the watch once, live your life, and let the right leg interrupt you. Deciding fast is the only skill this market actually requires, and it gets much easier when the verification is somebody else’s job. The whole system fits inside one free email subscription.
Common questions about empty leg flights
How much do empty leg flights cost?
Typically 25 to 50 percent below retail charter for the same aircraft and route, based on our booking history. A light jet trip retailing around $18,000 might go for $8,500 to $13,000 as an empty leg, with the deepest discounts inside the final five days before departure. Beware listings weeks out priced near retail; that’s normal, not a scam.
Are there empty leg flights near me?
Almost certainly. Legs post daily nationwide, concentrated where private jets fly most: New York, LA, Florida, Texas, and resort markets in season. Our alerts cover any US city pair within 100 miles of both ends of your route, so “near you” includes airports you might not think to check, the way San Jose serves San Francisco travelers and Butte serves Bozeman.
How far in advance should I book an empty leg flight?
Watch continuously, act late. Legs surface as operator schedules firm up, prices drop inside five days, and same-day bookings are routine. If your dates are fixed months ahead, book a standard charter instead and keep alerts running for flexible trips.
Are empty leg flights safe?
The aircraft and crew are the same ones flying full-price charters. What varies is the vetting of whoever sells it to you: ask for the crew-level third-party safety report, not just the operator rating. We run identical safety checks on every leg, discounted or not, and have canceled flights when crews didn’t pass.
Can I book a round trip using an empty leg?
Empty legs are one-way by nature, but pairing one with a standard one-way charter in the other direction is often the smartest combination. We price both pieces in a single proposal so you can compare the true round-trip cost against retail before committing to either half.
Do empty leg flights exist outside the US?
Yes. Most of the inventory we list is domestic, but international legs appear regularly and our sourcing network covers them too. Domestically, we arrange access to 5,000+ airports across the US and Canada. The same rules apply everywhere: verify the leg, the window, and the crew before money moves.
The bottom line
Empty leg flights reward understanding over luck. The discount is real because the economics are real: airplanes must move, owners must be paid, and your money beats an empty cabin. The restrictions are real for the same reason, and the people who win are the ones who set up once, stay a little flexible, and decide fast.
Four deeper guides hang off this page whenever you want the details: the definition and real prices, the finding process, the booking process, and the economics underneath it all.
Put your corridor on watch
Everything above only pays off if you’re positioned when a leg appears. Two minutes on our empty legs page: pick any city pair in the country, both directions, 100 miles of radius on each end, three alert emails a week. Free, no membership, pay only when you fly. The live inventory is on the same page, and the Peak Aviation app, free in the App Store, puts it in your pocket.
And if you’re reading this in summer or in the run-up to a major holiday, you’re reading it at the right time; that’s when the feed runs deepest.
Then the Thursday comes when your alert shows one of these empty leg flights on your exact corridor at 40 percent under retail, verified with the operator before you pay, proposal in your inbox within the hour. That’s not a lottery ticket. That’s a system working.
Rather talk it through first? Call or text (406) 296-3256 and you’ll get me, not a queue, or request a quote for any trip, empty leg or standard.
Subscribe to empty leg alerts, free
Related guides
- What Is an Empty Leg Flight? A Broker Explains
- How to Find Empty Leg Flights (Where Brokers Actually Look)
- How Do Empty Leg Flights Work? A Broker Explains the Economics
- How to Book an Empty Leg Flight (Without Getting Burned)
Related services
- Empty leg alerts and live inventory — free subscription, pay only when you fly
- Request a charter quote — all-in pricing on any trip
- Meet Pat Sinnott — the pilot who verifies every leg
Peak Aviation Solutions — Private Jet Charter Broker
Peak Aviation Solutions is a pilot-founded private jet charter broker headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, arranging charter flights across the US and Canada. We arrange — you fly.
Founder: Pat Sinnott, commercial multi-engine rated pilot with 21 years in private aviation. Ran a 21-aircraft charter fleet before founding Peak. NBAA member.
Services: private jet charter brokerage, empty leg flights and free empty leg alerts, business travel, personal travel, group travel, and event charter. No membership fees; clients pay per trip. Third-party safety vetting on every flight.
Coverage: access to 5,000+ airports across the US and Canada. About 80 percent of Peak’s flying happens outside Montana.
Contact: charter@flypeak.com · (406) 296-3256 · flypeak.com · Instagram @peakaviationsolutions
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