1Empty leg
A flight a charter aircraft has to make with nobody in the cabin, sold at a discount. The operator sets the route, the date and the aircraft. One way, no return. Everything on the live list is one.
2Deadhead, deadhead flight
The crew and broker word for the same thing, more common in the United States. An aircraft deadheads when it flies a sector without paying passengers. Explained at length in deadhead flights.
3Open leg
Another name for an empty leg, used by some brokers to mean a positioning sector that is open for sale. Same flight.
4Positioning flight, repositioning flight, ferry flight
What the operator calls the empty sector internally: moving the aircraft to where the next booking starts, or home to base. Ferry flight is the same idea, usually for maintenance or delivery. When one is offered for sale it becomes an empty leg.
5Empty seat, spare seat, seat on a private jet
Not sold on an empty leg. The operator sells the whole aircraft, so an empty seat on a private jet is not a product here. The per seat figures on this site are arithmetic, the listed price divided by the listed seats, and only hold if a group fills the cabin. See how much an empty leg private jet costs.
6Price on enquiry
What a card says when the operator published no price. We print that rather than guess. It is the majority of the board: 1,543 of the 2,264 upcoming legs right now.
7Listed price, whole aircraft price
The operator's own published figure for the whole aircraft, one way, shown exactly as written. Never per seat, never a from price.
8Per seat
The listed price divided by the listed seat count. A division, not a fare. The median on our board in euros is 622, on a Citation with nine seats.
9Charter operator
A company that holds the air operator certificate and flies the aircraft. Everything on this site comes from operators publishing their own legs. We do not read brokers.
10Broker
A company that sells flights on aircraft it does not operate, taking a margin. We are not one: no commission, and the enquiry goes to the operator that flies the leg. Broker sites are why a search for empty legs returns so many pages with no actual flights on them.
11Route alert
An email when an operator publishes a leg on a route you chose. Useful because close to half of the legs we record appear inside the final week before departure. Set one on the home page.
12Gone, withdrawn, sold
What happens to most empty legs. We have watched 622 disappear from operator sites before their departure date, half inside 4.5 days of appearing and 54 inside 24 hours. A listing is a strong indication, not a guarantee.
13Questions people ask
What is the difference between an empty leg and a deadhead?
None in practice. Empty leg is what operators write, deadhead is what crews and American brokers say. Both mean a private aircraft flying a sector with nobody in the cabin, sold at a discount.
What does price on enquiry mean on an empty leg?
The operator published the flight without a price, so you ask them and they quote. Most of the board is like that; where a price is published we show it exactly as listed.
What is an open leg flight?
A broker's name for an empty leg: a positioning sector that is open for sale. Same flight, same rules, one way.