The best windows for empty leg deals are the days after every major migration: the second week of January when Florida returns north, late April through May on the ski-corridor unwind, August's slow weeks in the Northeast, and the 48 hours following the Super Bowl, Masters, and Kentucky Derby. Discounts in these windows routinely hit 50-70% off comparable charter pricing.
Empty legs are a byproduct of someone else's schedule. The good windows are the ones where a lot of someones are moving in the same direction on the same week, leaving operators stuck repositioning aircraft back to base. Learn the migration calendar and you can plan a year of discounted flying around it.
When does the January post-holiday window actually open?
The richest January window runs roughly January 2 through January 15, with the deepest discounts hitting between the 4th and the 10th. The pattern is mechanical: families fly south on charter for Christmas and New Year's, then commercial home — or the principal stays an extra week and sends the airplane back empty. TEB, HPN, and BED see waves of northbound empty legs out of PBI, OPF, TMB, APF, and EYW. Discounts on these routes routinely run 50-65% off retail charter, and on a midsize jet you can see a PBI-TEB leg priced at $9,000-$14,000 when the full charter would book at $24,000-$28,000. The reverse — northbound principal staying south — also generates southbound empty legs in the first week of January as aircraft come down to pick people up.
Why is late April through May the ski unwind window?
April 15 through May 20 is when the ski corridor empties out and operators reposition jets that spent the winter shuttling ASE, EGE, JAC, SUN, and TEX. Aspen's commercial-style winter schedule for Part 135 ends as snow recedes, and the aircraft based or repeatedly cycled into the Rockies need to get back to TEB, VNY, DAL, and HOU. ASE-VNY, ASE-TEB, JAC-VNY, and EGE-DAL show up on aggregator feeds almost daily through this window. The same airplanes that charged $35,000 one-way ASE-TEB in February will post empty legs at $11,000-$15,000 in early May. Watch Sunday and Monday slots in particular — that is when the prior weekend's outbound charters dump their return positioning.
What makes August a sleeper window?
August is the Northeast's quiet month and operators discount aggressively to keep airframes moving. Principals are in the Hamptons, Nantucket, Europe, or off the grid entirely, and the dense TEB-PBI corridor that prints money from November through April goes soft. Operators based in MMU, TEB, and HPN run promotional empty legs to fill schedules, and you see unusual routings — TEB-ACK midweek, BED-MVY, HPN-PBI southbound for pre-positioning ahead of Labor Day. Discounts in August are less about a single migration event and more about general slack: expect 40-60% off, with the best deals on midweek departures Tuesday through Thursday.
Which sports events generate the cleanest post-event empty legs?
The Super Bowl, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby, F1 Miami, F1 Las Vegas, and the Daytona 500 all generate predictable empty leg dumps in the 24-48 hours after the event ends. The Super Bowl is the biggest single repositioning event in U.S. private aviation — every February, the host city absorbs 1,000-plus private arrivals over four days, and on Monday morning every one of those aircraft needs to leave. Empty legs out of the host airport on Monday and Tuesday after the Super Bowl routinely price at 60-75% off retail. Masters week ends with a Sunday evening and Monday morning flood out of AGS and DNL; Derby Saturday produces a Sunday wave out of LOU and SDF. The catch: you have to be ready to leave on the operator's clock, often within a four-hour window, and competition for these legs is heavy because brokers know the pattern as well as you do.
Are there reliable monthly patterns beyond the big windows?
Yes — ski-corridor Sunday and Monday returns produce empty legs every weekend from mid-December through early April, and the Florida corridor produces northbound empty legs every Monday from January through April as weekend visitors send their aircraft home. TEB-MMU is a daily repositioning leg because TEB has limited overnight parking; that one is less a deal and more a structural cheap option for anyone flexible on the New Jersey side. Thanksgiving week generates a wave of empty legs on the Wednesday before and the Sunday after as aircraft reposition for family pickups. The week between Christmas and New Year's is famously bad for empty legs — every airplane is busy — but the first three days of January are excellent as the holiday block dissolves.
How do you actually catch these windows?
Set alerts on XO, JetASAP, and Stratos two to three weeks before the window opens, and get on the direct mailing lists of operators that base aircraft in the relevant corridor — Solairus, Jet Linx, Flexjet, Wheels Up, and regional Part 135 operators all push empty legs to their lists before they hit the aggregators. Brokers see empty legs first because operators call them first; a relationship with a broker who places empty legs weekly will surface inventory 24-48 hours ahead of the public feeds. The biggest mistake buyers make is waiting until the window is already open to start looking. By the time a January 8 PBI-TEB empty leg posts on a public aggregator at 8 a.m., a broker mailing list saw it at 6 a.m. the day before.
What should you not expect from a "good window"?
A good window does not mean you can pick your date and time and find a deal — it means the supply of empty legs is unusually high relative to the rest of the year. You still take the operator's exact city pair, exact date, and exact departure time. If you need to leave PBI on January 9 at 10 a.m. specifically, you are back in the retail charter market. The window helps you find a leg that is close enough to what you wanted that the compromise is worth the 50-70% discount. And every empty leg, even in the best window, can cancel if the inbound charter cancels or the aircraft swaps. Build the trip assuming the leg might disappear 12 hours before departure, and have a commercial backup priced out before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
When does the January post-holiday window actually open?
The richest January window runs roughly January 2 through January 15, with the deepest discounts hitting between the 4th and the 10th. The pattern is mechanical: families fly south on charter for Christmas and New Year's, then commercial home — or the principal stays an extra week and sends the airplane back empty. TEB, HPN, and BED see waves of northbound empty legs out of PBI, OPF, TMB, APF, and EYW. Discounts on these routes routinely run 50-65% off retail charter, and on a midsize jet you can see a PBI-TEB leg priced at $9,000-$14,000 when the full charter would book at $24,000-$28,000. The reverse — northbound principal staying south — also generates southbound empty legs in the first week of January as aircraft come down to pick people up.
Why is late April through May the ski unwind window?
April 15 through May 20 is when the ski corridor empties out and operators reposition jets that spent the winter shuttling ASE, EGE, JAC, SUN, and TEX. Aspen's commercial-style winter schedule for Part 135 ends as snow recedes, and the aircraft based or repeatedly cycled into the Rockies need to get back to TEB, VNY, DAL, and HOU. ASE-VNY, ASE-TEB, JAC-VNY, and EGE-DAL show up on aggregator feeds almost daily through this window. The same airplanes that charged $35,000 one-way ASE-TEB in February will post empty legs at $11,000-$15,000 in early May. Watch Sunday and Monday slots in particular — that is when the prior weekend's outbound charters dump their return positioning.
What makes August a sleeper window?
August is the Northeast's quiet month and operators discount aggressively to keep airframes moving. Principals are in the Hamptons, Nantucket, Europe, or off the grid entirely, and the dense TEB-PBI corridor that prints money from November through April goes soft. Operators based in MMU, TEB, and HPN run promotional empty legs to fill schedules, and you see unusual routings — TEB-ACK midweek, BED-MVY, HPN-PBI southbound for pre-positioning ahead of Labor Day. Discounts in August are less about a single migration event and more about general slack: expect 40-60% off, with the best deals on midweek departures Tuesday through Thursday.
Which sports events generate the cleanest post-event empty legs?
The Super Bowl, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby, F1 Miami, F1 Las Vegas, and the Daytona 500 all generate predictable empty leg dumps in the 24-48 hours after the event ends. The Super Bowl is the biggest single repositioning event in U.S. private aviation — every February, the host city absorbs 1,000-plus private arrivals over four days, and on Monday morning every one of those aircraft needs to leave. Empty legs out of the host airport on Monday and Tuesday after the Super Bowl routinely price at 60-75% off retail. Masters week ends with a Sunday evening and Monday morning flood out of AGS and DNL; Derby Saturday produces a Sunday wave out of LOU and SDF. The catch: you have to be ready to leave on the operator's clock, often within a four-hour window, and competition for these legs is heavy because brokers know the pattern as well as you do.
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More from Empty Legs
What Are Empty Leg Flights and How Do They Work?
An empty leg is a repositioning flight a charter operator has to fly with no paying passengers, typically to return an aircraft to base or move it to pick up the next client. Operators discount these segments 30-75% below a comparable on-demand charter to recover variable cost. The catch: you take the route, date, and departure window the operator dictates, and the flight can cancel if the revenue charter that created it changes.
How to Find Empty Leg Deals: Apps, Brokers, and Aggregators
Empty legs surface through three channels: aggregator apps (XO, JetASAP, Stratos), broker mailing lists, and direct operator inventory. Aggregators list the most flights but mark them up; brokers see inventory hours earlier; operators quote the cleanest price if you already know who flies your corridor. Expect 30–75% off comparable retail charter, with the deepest discounts on long-tail routes and same-day notice.
Empty Leg Pricing: How Much Can You Actually Save?
Empty leg flights typically price 30-75% below comparable on-demand charter. The discount widens on long-tail routes, short-notice departures, and odd-hour times. It narrows to 20-40% on dense corridors like TEB-PBI or VNY-ASE where operators have confirmed return clients lined up.
The Trade-Offs of Empty Legs: Flexibility vs Discount
Empty legs discount 30-75% off comparable retail charter, but you buy the operator's exact route, exact date, and exact departure window. The math works when your calendar already matches the repositioning flight. Shift the city pair by 50 miles or the departure by four hours and the discount disappears — or the trip does.