Empty Leg Flights from New York

An empty leg is a repositioning flight an operator sells at a discount because the aircraft has to fly anyway. If your dates are flexible, empty legs from New York can be one of the cheapest ways to fly private, often 25 to 75 percent below a standard charter.

Where empty legs from New York usually go

Because New York is one of the busiest private-aviation markets in the world, empty legs out of Teterboro and Westchester come up constantly. The most common repositioning runs are down to Florida (Miami and Palm Beach), across to the West Coast (Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco), out to the Caribbean, and transatlantic to London and Europe.

The catch

An empty leg follows the operator’s schedule, not yours. The date, time and route are largely fixed, it is almost always one way, and it can be cancelled if the original trip that created it changes. For a flexible traveller that is a fair trade for the saving. For a fixed, must-happen trip, keep a backup.

How to get one from New York

Empty legs appear and disappear fast, often only days before departure. The reliable way to catch a good one is to tell us your rough plans and let us watch operator repositioning out of New York directly, then quote you the operator’s real price with one flat fee and no markup. If a genuine empty leg fits, you keep the full saving.