Ledig surfaces empty legs across Europe direct from EASA-licensed operators. No broker chain, no markup added on top, no opaque platform fee buried in the price. The operator sets the price. You see what they set.
Why empty legs cost less
Private jets rarely fly back-to-back contracts. After a charter from London to Nice on Friday afternoon, the aircraft might need to be back in Geneva by Saturday morning. That positioning leg — Nice to Geneva — has to fly empty. The operator already pays the crew, the fuel, and the airport fees. Selling the seats recovers a piece of cost that would otherwise be pure loss.
The math means empty legs typically price at 30–60% below the equivalent charter. On a long-range jet, that's often the difference between a €30,000 charter and a €12,000 empty leg — for the same aircraft, same crew, same cabin spec.
Where empty legs concentrate in Europe
Empty legs are not random. They follow operator base rotations and ski/yacht season patterns. The corridors where supply is densest:
- Northern Europe → Côte d'Azur (London / Paris / Geneva → Nice / Cannes / Saint-Tropez)
- Northern Europe → Balearics (London / Berlin / Geneva → Ibiza / Mallorca)
- Switzerland ↔ Alpine ski airports (Geneva ↔ Sion / Innsbruck / Courchevel)
- Mediterranean coastal hops (Nice ↔ Olbia ↔ Palermo)
- UK ↔ Continental hubs (London ↔ Paris / Munich / Zurich)
See all live corridors on Ledig for current pricing and frequency by route.
How empty legs work in practice
- Operator publishes the leg with date, route, aircraft, number of seats, floor price.
- Travellers on the matching alert list see it within minutes.
- You book seats at the operator's price plus a transparent platform fee.
- The operator confirms — usually within 60 minutes during European business hours.
- You fly. The contract is between you and the AOC operator directly.
The honest part — empty legs are conditional
Empty legs depend on the underlying contract still flying. If the primary charter cancels, the empty leg cancels. Ledig surfaces the cancellation odds for each leg up front, and operators on the platform commit to either rebook on a comparable flight or full refund within 24 hours when an empty leg drops. That doesn't eliminate the conditionality — but it makes it predictable.
See our guide on empty leg reliability for the actual cancellation rates we observe in the European market.