Most charter platforms in Europe today are brokers in different clothing — the consumer-facing brand acts as the broker, the booking flows through the broker, and the operator gets a sub-contract. That model works for complex ad-hoc charters where a human absolutely needs to negotiate currency, slots, customs, cabin spec. It does not work as well for empty legs.
What the broker layer actually costs an empty leg
A typical EU intra-Schengen empty leg looks roughly like this when sold via a traditional broker chain:
- Operator publishes empty leg internally at €4,500
- Wholesale broker picks it up, marks to €5,200 for retail brokers
- Retail broker quotes traveller €5,800
- Traveller pays €5,800. Operator receives €4,500. €1,300 stays in the chain.
On Ledig the same flight prices on the platform at €4,500. Traveller pays €4,500 plus a small, transparent platform fee. Operator receives €4,500 minus payment processing. The difference compounds across the year on every seat sold.
Where brokers still win — and we say so
We built Ledig assuming brokers will continue to dominate complex, bespoke, multi-leg charters. We're not trying to displace them there. What we're building is the layer for the simple end of the market — empty legs, repositioning, single-aircraft on-demand — where the broker margin is friction without proportional value.
Brokers are excellent at navigating chaos. Empty legs aren't chaotic — they're inventory.
What replaces the broker
The broker performs three roles: discovery, trust, settlement. Ledig replaces each:
- Discovery — programmatic matching against a curated traveller list opted in to that route, aircraft, price band.
- Trust — every operator on Ledig is verified against EASA AOC + national CAA records before a single leg goes live. Every traveller is KYC'd at first booking.
- Settlement — Stripe Connect handles funds in escrow until departure, releases to operator within 24 hours.
See also: how the distribution model works, or comparison with Avinode.