Private Business Jet Charter - Empty Leg Deals
| Private jets can be considered a real alternative to first class flying for both individuals and corporate business. For executive jet charters we can reduce our costs further by looking for 'empty leg' deals where prices can be up to 75% off the normal charter price. |
What is an empty leg?
If a jet is chartered from say New York to Los Angeles one way, the jet operator will usually have the jet returned to its home base (in this case New York) within a day or two, rather than leave it parked in LA. Usually the operator cannot sell the flight back to paying passengers so it has to fly back home empty - hence the name 'empty leg', also known as a 'deadhead' or a 'backhaul'. Usually the originating passengers will have to pay an extra fee to cover some of the dead leg costs.
It is thought that over one third of all private business jet flights are actually empty legs. So the jet operator will offer these empty legs at a highly reduced price to the normal jet charter rate - this can often work out cheaper per person than first or business class tickets on commercial airliners. And because business jet demand has increased significantly since 9/11, you should be able to find an empty leg flight going to your destination.
For example, executive jet broker StudioJet offers a 'large jet' empty leg for $18,900 from New York to Los Angeles - that works out less than $1500 per person on a full load of say 13 passengers. There are likely to be some extra fees and charges on top of the base quote - find out in advance how much the extras will be.
There are many private jet operators and brokers offering empty legs, such as Bluestarjets, 247jets, Onesky in the US and International Air Charter plc in the UK. Onesky has an email notification service which sends empty leg updates out to subscribers. With the internet it has become even easier now to find that empty leg.
Empty leg flights are available to many destinations worldwide - not just the US and Europe. Obviously if you are flying to a 'popular' destination (Caribbean, Med, major business centres) it will be easier to find an available empty leg.
So if you have some flexibility in your travel plans then finding an empty leg could mean flying on an executive jet at a very reasionable cost.
Air Travel Articles & Resources > Private Jets Resources > Empty Leg Jet Charters
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