The flight is happening either way, so anything above zero looks like profit. It is not, and the operators who learn that learn it from the second booking rather than the first.
The floor
Not zero. The marginal cost of carrying passengers on a flight that was already going.
That is a real number and it is not small: the landing fee at the far end if you were not otherwise stopping, the handling, the crew duty the passenger service consumes, the cleaning, the administrative time of a booking, and the risk that the passenger's schedule constrains a repositioning flight that had no schedule before.
Below that floor you are paying to carry someone. We work with empty legs: they arise from operations already confirmed, are listed at short notice and are not guaranteed. Ask us what is available that day.
The ceiling
Whatever the same routing costs as a normal charter, minus enough to be obviously worth the inflexibility.
An empty leg buyer accepts your date, your time window and your aircraft. That inflexibility has to be paid for in price, or there is no reason to buy one — and if your empty leg is priced near your charter rate, it will not sell and you have learned nothing.
How it moves as departure approaches
Conventionally the price falls. In practice it should fall to the floor and stop, and the falling should be planned rather than improvised at ten at night.
Decide the two numbers when you publish: the asking price, and the floor. Then the decision at forty-eight hours is arithmetic rather than judgement, which matters because at forty-eight hours you are tired and an empty aircraft feels worse than it costs.
The discount that costs more than the flight
Selling below your charter rate to someone who would have booked a charter.
A San José–Tamarindo of 97.1 nautical miles sold as an empty leg to a passenger who wanted exactly that routing on exactly that day did not fill an empty aircraft. It replaced a full-price booking with a discounted one, and it taught that passenger to wait for the next one.
The defence is the constraint, not the price. An empty leg is your date and your window. If the passenger is choosing the date, it is a charter. We show a "from" price per route; the final fare depends on the date, the group and the baggage, and is confirmed in writing before booking.
The second thing that outlives the flight
A published number is a reference point. Partners screenshot it. A lodge that saw a Drake Bay run of 83.5 nautical miles go out at an empty-leg price will remember that number when quoting its own guests, and it will not remember the conditions attached.
Publish the conditions with the price, in the same line, every time: date fixed, window fixed, aircraft fixed, subject to the original booking. We quote waiting time and aircraft overnights at the destination: tell us whether you return the same day or the aircraft waits, and we include it in the price.
When not to sell it at all
When the aircraft was going to arrive empty and early, and a passenger makes it arrive on time instead. You have converted flexible positioning into a commitment for a fraction of a charter.
And when the leg is under an hour. The coordination is the same as a full job for a fraction of the contribution, and you will have earned a complaint's worth of exposure for a rounding error. Operators we bring on evidence current certification, insurance and fleet documentation before receiving a first assignment.
Questions we get asked
Is anything above zero profit on an empty leg?
No. The floor is the marginal cost of carrying passengers on a flight that was already going, and it is not small.
What should the asking price be?
Below the equivalent charter by enough to pay the passenger for accepting your date, window and aircraft.
How should the price move as departure approaches?
Down to the floor and no further, and decided when you publish rather than improvised late at night.
Which discount costs more than the flight?
Selling below charter rate to someone who wanted that routing anyway. That replaces a full-price booking and teaches them to wait.
How do I defend the price?
With the constraint. If the passenger is choosing the date, it is a charter and not an empty leg.
When should I not sell one?
When it converts flexible positioning into a timed commitment, and when the leg is under an hour.
Let us talk
We work with empty legs: they arise from operations already confirmed, are listed at short notice and are not guaranteed. Ask us what is available that day.