Empty leg flights from FAA-certified operators, at up to 75% off a regular charter. One final price before you book.
How do you book an empty leg?
Three steps from browsing to boarding. No membership, no deposit, no card on file.
- Step 01
Find your flight
Every leg we list, on one board. Filter by route, date, aircraft and price.
- Step 02
Request it
One click, no card, no deposit. We ask the operator for you.
- Step 03
Confirm and fly
The operator confirms and you get one exact total. Say yes, pay as your quote says, and walk on.
Nothing on your exact route?
See what comes close
Trip Finder shows the legs that fit your trip or come close. Pick the ones you like and send them together, a request for each.
Get an email when it posts
Set a free alert with your route and dates. When a matching leg posts, we email you.
Which cities have empty legs right now?
See what is flying this week.
Request the leg you want. Nothing to pay until the operator confirms.
UpLeg at a glance
What is on the board right now?
What UpLeg lists, how often it refreshes, who flies you and how the price works, as of the time on the stamp.
| Empty legs live | 2,610 |
|---|---|
| With an operator-listed price | 645 |
| Cities with their own page | 67 |
| Updated | Every 30 minutes |
| Where legs fly | Anywhere touching the United States: every leg departs from or arrives in the US |
| Who flies you | FAA-certificated Part 135 operators, named before you pay |
| Price | An estimated total on the board; one final price before you book |
The two counts move through the day as operators post and withdraw legs, so a figure is only true with its stamp. This is important because a count of empty legs quoted without its time is out of date within hours; the board itself is updated every 30 minutes, and these are the same figures, from the same read, as the Empty Leg Index.
As of
Ways to fly private and key terms
Empty leg, charter or jet card?
Three ways to fly private, side by side: they differ significantly in what you buy, who sets the dates and what you commit to. UpLeg lists the first and quotes the second; it sells no jet cards and no memberships.
| Aspect | Empty leg | Private jet charter | Jet card |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | The whole aircraft on a flight it was making anyway | The whole aircraft for a trip built around you | Prepaid hours or dollars, drawn down per flight |
| Price | Up to 75% under retail charter; one final price before you book | Retail, quoted per trip; one final price before you book | Fixed hourly rates, paid in advance |
| Route and dates | Set by the aircraft's schedule | Yours | Yours, with the program's notice period |
| Commitment to ask | None: no deposit, no card on file | None: a quote is free | A prepaid balance, often on a term |
| Who flies you | An FAA-certificated Part 135 operator, named before you pay | An FAA-certificated Part 135 operator, named before you pay | The program's own or partner operators |
| Can it change | Yes: the operator can withdraw the leg if its schedule changes | Rarely: the trip is yours once confirmed | Rarely |
| Best for | Flexible dates on a common route, one direction | Fixed dates, round trips, groups, unusual routes | Frequent flyers who want a fixed rate |
| On UpLeg | The live board at flyupleg.com/flights | A free quote at flyupleg.com/charter | Not offered |
How do you choose?
Direction and dates decide it. An empty leg is priced for the aircraft's own route and window, so fitting that window is essential; when your trip does not fit, a charter quote is the honest answer rather than a leg that almost fits.
- Step 1. Search the board. The board lists every empty leg we have found on the operators' own listings, filtered by route, date, cabin and price. If a leg fits your direction and window, request it: one final price before you agree to anything.
- Step 2. Put your trip into Trip Finder. Trip Finder checks your route, dates and seats against every leg on the board and shows the near misses too: a leg from an airport within 150 miles, or one a day or two off. Send the ones you like together, a request for each.
- Step 3. Set a free alert. No fit today? Give an alert the route and dates and we email you the moment a matching leg posts. Legs post and are withdrawn through the day, so an alert catches what a search misses.
- Step 4. Ask for a charter quote. Fixed dates, a round trip, a larger group or a route no leg flies: request a quote and we come back with one from the same Part 135 operators, certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration, with one final price before you book.
How do you find an empty leg for your trip?
| Method | Trip Finder | Browsing the board | Flight alert | Operator websites |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you give it | Your route, your dates and the seats you need | Nothing up front; filter by route, date, cabin or price as you go | A route and, if you like, a range of dates | A visit to each operator's site, one at a time |
| What you get | The legs on the board that fit your trip or come close, in two groups: exact and close | Every live leg on the board, from every operator UpLeg reads | An email when a leg posts on that route | That one operator's legs |
| Near misses | Shown and marked: an airport within the distance you set, or a day or two off | Only the ones you think to search for | Only legs on the route you set | Only that operator's |
| A leg nobody published | Send your closest picks and UpLeg also asks the operators around both ends | Not shown | Not shown | Only by calling the operator |
| Best when | You have a trip in mind and some room on dates or airports | You are open about where and when | Nothing fits yet and you can wait | You already fly with one operator |
Key terms
These terms mean the same thing on every UpLeg page and in every quote. On the board, listed means that the operator published the price itself, and estimated means that UpLeg computed the range and marked it as an estimate. Part 135 refers to the FAA rules an operator flies under, and Part 295 refers to the Department of Transportation rules UpLeg works under as an air charter broker. This is important because the operator, not UpLeg, flies the aircraft and holds operational control of every flight.
- Empty leg
- An empty leg is a private jet flight that has to happen anyway, with nobody on board, because the aircraft is repositioning after one charter or before the next. Operators sell that flight for the whole aircraft at a fraction of the charter price, on the aircraft's own route and dates. More on empty legs
- Trip Finder
- Trip Finder is UpLeg's empty leg search for one trip: you give it a route, your dates and the seats you need, and it checks every empty leg on the UpLeg board and shows the exact matches and the close ones, from a nearby airport or a day or two off. The legs you pick go to UpLeg together, a request for each, and asking costs nothing. More on the Trip Finder
- Private jet charter
- A private jet charter is the rental of a whole aircraft with crew for one trip on your own route and dates, priced per trip. UpLeg quotes charters through FAA-certificated Part 135 operators for any US-touching trip, one-way or round trip. More on private jet charters
- Air charter broker
- An air charter broker is a company that arranges flights on aircraft it does not operate, under 14 CFR Part 295. UpLeg is an air charter broker: every flight it arranges is flown by a Part 135 operator that is named before you pay and that holds operational control of the flight. More on air charter brokers
- Part 135 operator
- A Part 135 operator is an air carrier the FAA has certificated under 14 CFR Part 135 to fly on-demand charter with its own aircraft, pilots and maintenance program. Every empty leg and charter on UpLeg is flown by one. More on Part 135 operators
- Estimated total
- An estimated total is UpLeg's estimate, shown as a range and marked as an estimate, for an empty leg the operator posted without a price. Every booking gets one final price for the whole aircraft before you agree to anything. More on estimated totals
- Flexible departure window
- A flexible departure window is a range of days on which an operator will fly a given empty leg, because the aircraft only needs to reach its next job by a deadline. The exact departure time is set with the operator when you book. More on flexible departure windows
Terms as of