Save up to 75% on private jet flights by booking empty legs.
Empty leg private jet flights – also known as repositioning or ferry flights – are one of the most cost-effective ways to fly private. These flights occur when a private jet is scheduled to fly empty to its next destination, creating an opportunity for travelers to book the aircraft at significantly reduced rates. Empty leg flights typically cost 30% to 75% less than standard private jet charters, depending on the route, timing, and aircraft type. Popular empty leg routes often include high-traffic corridors such as New York to Miami, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and seasonal routes to Aspen, Palm Beach, and the Caribbean. Availability is limited and changes quickly – often within hours – making flexibility key. Browse current empty leg opportunities below or request real-time availability tailored to your travel needs.
Here's what most empty leg pages won't put in writing: nothing is guaranteed until the aircraft is in the air. The empty leg exists only because of the paid trip it's attached to. If that primary booking moves, changes aircraft, or cancels, your flight can move or vanish with it. Experienced empty leg flyers plan around a cancellation rate somewhere in the range of one in seven to one in ten.When it works, you're paying a fraction of charter for the whole aircraft. When it doesn't, you need a backup that was never riding on this flight. So you can watch for empty legs — you can't really plan around them. Those are two different activities, and confusing them is how people end up stranded.
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If you're coordinating a handful of friends to a particular island on a particular weekend, an empty leg is almost certainly not your answer — the odds that a repositioning flight matches your exact people, place, and dates are slim, and the cancellation risk lands hardest on group plans. For that trip, a shared charter quote is the saner path. Empty legs reward the flexible and punish the scheduled. Know which one you are before you start hunting.
The New York Tri-State region offers one of the highest concentrations of private jet airports in the world, giving travelers more aircraft options, shorter repositioning times, and faster departures.
What I discovered was a fragmented industry:
Availability varies daily based on aircraft repositioning schedules and charter demand.
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A subscription doesn't remove the empty leg tradeoff — it just changes how you pay for it. You're buying convenient access to a feed of one-way flights, not the ability to fly your own itinerary. For the right temperament, it's the best value in private aviation. For the wrong one, it's a few thousand dollars of FOMO.
There’s a second way to access empty legs that doesn’t involve hunting one-off listings: subscription apps that pool repositioning flights and let members claim them. The best-known is Vaunt, which built a flat annual membership — tiered, with a Core tier in the low-four-figures and a larger-cabin tier around mid-four-figures — for access to last-minute, one-way repositioning flights, with no per-flight fee. You join a waitlist; priority depends on factors like how recently you last flew and how long you’ve been a member; the list closes about 24 hours before departure.
The model is clever, and for the right person it’s close to magic — if you’re spontaneous and flexible, it can be the cheapest legitimate private flying in the country. For anyone who needs a specific route on a specific day, it’s close to useless, by design.
Three honest caveats before you put money down on any such program: it’s still empty legs underneath (same one-way limitation, same cancellation reality); the companies behind these apps move fast and change hands, so confirm current ownership, terms, fleet, and price directly before subscribing; and a membership only pays off if the routes it actually flies overlap with where you actually want to go.
I haven't taken an empty leg yet. I came to private aviation to skip the airport, and the empty leg model is the part I'm still figuring out. I’ve learned that empty-legs are best for those with flexibility that I don't always have. I'd like to try one and report back here in the way I'd want a friend to tell me. Until then, here's what I know: every operator and broker I've talked to says the same thing in different words — empty legs are great when your plans are loose and a trap when they're fixed. If I'd be fine flying commercial at the last minute, then an available empty leg option would be a wonderful upgrade. If I need to be there at a certain destination at a specific time, then I wouldn’t consider it.
An empty leg flight is a repositioning flight operated without passengers. Since the aircraft is already scheduled to fly, you can book these flights at a significantly lower cost than a standard private charter.
Savings typically range from 30% to 75% compared to standard private jet charter prices. The exact discount depends on the route, aircraft type, and availability.
Yes, empty leg flights are operated by certified private jet operators and follow the same high safety standards as regular charter flights. However, schedules may change if the primary booking is modified or canceled.
Departure times for empty leg flights are generally fixed because they are based on an aircraft’s existing schedule. In some cases, limited flexibility may be available depending on the operator.
Browse our current empty leg listings or contact our team with your preferred route and travel dates. We’ll help you identify available flights and notify you when suitable opportunities become available.
