How to Find Empty Leg Deals: A Practical Guide

Empty legs are created by advance bookings. When a client books a one-way charter from New York to Miami, the aircraft needs to return to New York (or proceed to its next booking location) empty. That return flight is the empty leg.

The availability and direction of empty legs follow demand patterns. Holiday periods produce predictable empty leg directions: aircraft flying south before Christmas produce northbound return empty legs between Christmas and New Year's. Aircraft flying to Aspen for New Year's produce eastbound return empty legs in early January.

Through a Broker Relationship

The most reliable source of empty legs is a broker with whom you have standing route preferences on file. When Hogani Jets receives an empty leg from an operator that matches a client's standing interest, Hogani Jets contacts the client directly. This is faster than any public listing because the match is made before the leg is marketed broadly.

To use this method: contact Hogani Jets and provide your primary routes, preferred aircraft categories, and the level of schedule flexibility you can maintain.

Operator Direct Lists

Some operators maintain their own email lists of upcoming empty legs for clients who have flown with them before. These lists are aircraft-specific and market-limited: you only see empty legs from that operator's fleet. The value is directness and speed. Operators sometimes release empty legs to their direct list before sending them to brokers.

Online Empty Leg Platforms

Several aviation platforms aggregate empty leg listings from multiple operators. These platforms display route, date, aircraft type, and listed price. They are publicly accessible without a prior booking relationship.

The limitation of platform searches is that popular empty legs sell quickly. A well-priced New York to Miami midsize jet empty leg may be listed and gone within hours. Checking platforms once a day is often too infrequent for the best opportunities. Setting up email or push notification alerts for specific routes is the more effective approach.

An established broker relationship outperforms any platform search for finding empty legs on specific routes. A broker who knows your standing route preferences receives empty leg notifications from their entire operator network simultaneously and contacts the right clients immediately. An unconnected platform search requires the client to check repeatedly and compete with all other platform users. The broker relationship is an asymmetric advantage: the operator alerts go to a known buyer first, then to the market. The client with a standing broker relationship is the known buyer.

How Far in Advance

Most empty legs appear 24 to 72 hours before the departure time. This is the most important constraint to understand before pursuing empty legs as a travel strategy. You need to be prepared to travel on short notice.

Some empty legs appear up to 2 weeks ahead when the creating booking was made well in advance, and the operator has chosen to market the return leg early. These longer-notice empty legs are rarer and tend to disappear quickly when they do appear.

For empty legs where the return direction is highly predictable (for example, an aircraft flying a group to Aspen for New Year's Eve will almost certainly have an eastbound empty leg on or around January 2), some brokers will take informal expressions of interest before the specific leg is confirmed. Hogani Jets does this for regular clients on high-probability corridors.

Best Calendar Periods for Empty Legs

Verify It Is a Real Booking

An empty leg is contingent on the flight that created it. If the inbound or outbound booking cancels, the empty leg disappears. Ask the broker or operator: how confirmed is the creating booking? An empty leg linked to a firm, paid, advance booking is more stable than one attached to a tentative booking.

Check the Aircraft

Empty legs are sold as the aircraft flies. You cannot upgrade the aircraft or switch to a different type. If the empty leg is on an older midsize jet and you require a super midsize, this empty leg is not for you. Check the aircraft category, age, and configuration against your requirements before committing.

Understand the Flexibility Limits

The departure time on an empty leg is the time the operator needs the aircraft to depart for operational reasons. It cannot be moved by more than a narrow window. A departure listed at 2pm may flex to 3pm but not to 8pm. If the time does not work, the empty leg does not work. Do not accept an empty leg hoping to adjust the time after booking.

Confirm Passenger Numbers

Empty legs can carry the full passenger capacity of the aircraft. They are not limited to one or two passengers. A midsize jet empty leg can carry 8 or 9 passengers at the same discounted price as one passenger. The cost of the flight does not increase with passenger count.

Empty leg discounts range from 25 to 75 percent off the standard one-way charter rate for the same aircraft on the same route. The discount varies by how urgently the operator needs to move the aircraft, how much notice exists, and whether the route is a common one with multiple potential buyers. A common corridor like New York to Miami on a midsize jet may be discounted 25 to 40 percent because demand is high and buyers are available. A more unusual routing with fewer potential passengers may be discounted 50 to 75 percent to move quickly. Pricing reflects supply and demand at the specific moment the leg is available.

Route: You cannot change the departure or destination city. You may be able to add a fuel stop, but not a diversion to a different destination.

Aircraft: The aircraft is what it is. No substitutions.

Departure time: The time is operationally set. Minor adjustments (30 to 60 minutes) may be possible. Major changes are not possible.

Catering: Standard catering can usually be arranged with sufficient notice. Elaborate or highly custom catering may not be achievable at the lead times typical for empty legs. Keep catering requests practical.

An empty leg is a passive availability: the aircraft is going to move regardless, and you are offered a seat. A repositioning flight is an active request: you ask the operator to position an aircraft from its current location to your departure point for your charter. Repositioning flights carry a repositioning fee (the cost of the empty positioning leg) added to the charter price.

The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably in the market, which creates confusion. When evaluating an offer, clarify: is this aircraft already committed to moving on this route (empty leg), or is it being asked to move to serve my booking (repositioning)?

The practical approach for anyone who wants to benefit from empty legs regularly: establish a broker relationship and provide standing route preferences. Contact Hogani Jets with the routes you travel most frequently, the aircraft categories you prefer, and the lead time you can work with.

The more flexible your schedule, the more empty legs will be relevant. Clients who can confirm a departure 24 hours out will see more opportunities than those who need 5 days minimum notice.

Contact Hogani Jets at charter@hoganijets.com or +1-855-660-0573 to register standing route preferences for empty leg notifications. 

All charters are facilitated through licensed Part 135 direct air carriers who hold full operational control and regulatory compliance for every flight.