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Live empty leg flights to and from Johannesburg, straight from the charter operators that fly them.
Checking live availability…We list what operators publish and take no commission. Your enquiry goes to them.
Availability is re-read from operator sources through the day, and each leg carries its timestamp.
The figure shown is the operator's own, for the whole aircraft. Where none is published we say so.
No account needed to browse, no card, and no charge at any point.
Johannesburg is the feeder airport for southern African safari, and that single fact shapes everything on this board. Lodges in Botswana, the Kruger lowveld, the Limpopo valley and the Mozambique coast are reached by air because the drive is impractical, and the aircraft that carry guests in have to come back out. Those return sectors are the empty leg flights listed here: crew, fuel and handling already paid for, offered one-way at a reduced price.
The pattern is unusually consistent. Recent legs have run to Maun for the Okavango Delta, to the Limpopo Valley, Chiredzi and Malelane for the reserves, and along the coast to Vilanculos. Domestically the Cape Town corridor is the steadiest. The live counts under “Where these flights go” are read from the current board rather than a fixed list.
The choice matters more here than almost anywhere else on this list:
If your onward plan is a lodge transfer rather than an airline connection, Lanseria is almost always the better arrival.
For what a seat works out at across the whole board, by aircraft type and in the operator's own currency, see how much an empty leg private jet costs.
Where an operator publishes a price it is shown exactly as listed, as a whole-aircraft figure rather than a per-seat fare. Southern African safari operators frequently list availability without a price, so those cards read Price on enquiry: we would rather say that than estimate. Our guide to the most affordable way to charter a private jet compares the options, and the private jet cost per hour breakdown gives the standard-charter benchmark.
The workhorse on these routes is the Pilatus PC-12 NGX: single turboprop, short unpaved strips, eight seats, which is exactly what bush airstrips demand. Jets such as the Citation CJ4 appear on the Cape Town and regional city runs. Bush strips also carry strict baggage limits, usually soft bags only, so confirm the allowance with the operator before you pack. Browse by aircraft type if the airframe matters.
Reading the record.
These are counts from our own board, read when you opened this page, so they reflect the operators we read rather than the whole market, and they are a record of what was listed, not a forecast. New legs appear with days of notice, which is what the route alert is for.
An empty leg exists because of the paid charter around it, so it can be sold or moved without notice. Every listing here is recorded from what the operator published, with the date we last saw it. Treat it as a strong indication rather than a guarantee, and confirm with the operator before planning around it.
Empty Leg List is a listing service. We are not a broker, not an operator, and not party to any booking, and we take no commission. Your enquiry goes to the operator covering the route, who confirms availability and final price with you directly. If nothing matches, set a route alert and we email you when a leg on that corridor is listed.
Working out the busiest corridors…
Working out which aircraft show up…
Live legs leaving from, or landing at, other airports within 150 km of JNB. A leg from an airport an hour's drive away can be the one that fits; the distance shown is from JNB to the airport the leg uses, in a straight line.
Every leg we have recorded with one end at Johannesburg since 30 July 2026, whether it is still on the board or not. A leg leaves the board when the operator stops publishing it, and we cannot tell from outside whether it was sold or withdrawn, so these are counts of what was listed, not of what flew.
One bar per calendar month, from the first month in our record to the furthest date an operator has published so far. Grey bars are months already past, gold is this month and the months ahead. A blank month is a month we have no record for, and before August 2026 that means we were not yet recording. The months ahead hold only what operators have published up to now, and most empty legs appear days or weeks before departure, so those bars will keep growing. The shape says how far ahead operators publish, not how busy a month will be.
| Airport at the other end | Legs out | Legs in | On the board | Priced | Last seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading the record. | |||||
Legs out left Johannesburg, legs in landed at Johannesburg. Airports are named as the operator published them, so a row is whatever the operator wrote. The few legs where both ends resolve to Johannesburg are counted above but have no other end to list.
Every corridor touching Johannesburg that has its own page, with the legs we have recorded on it. Every empty leg touching the country is on empty legs in South Africa.