That aircraft is flying anyway.
Empty, if you're not on board.
Every day in Europe hundreds of jets fly with nobody on board: they return to base or go to collect the next client. In the Alps it happens more than anywhere else, for a precise reason: Chambéry has no hangar and weekend parking is assessed case by case, so the aircraft leaves the same day. For the operator that flight is a dead cost. For you it is the same aircraft, the same crew, the same private terminal — at a different price.
That flight is happening with you or without you. That is why the operator lets it go at a figure it would never quote on a normal charter: better to recover part of it than nothing at all.
Same aircraft, same crew, same private terminal. The only thing that changes is the reason the flight existed in the first place. What you save depends on the route and the day: we tell you straight, with the actual figure in front of you.
is the window in which an empty leg usually appears. And at Chambéry the T-10 rule releases unused slots only ten days before arrival: availability keeps moving until the last minute.
A client gets off at Chambéry.
The aircraft does not stay there.
There is no hangar, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday parking is assessed case by case across some thirty stands. The aircraft has to return to base or reach whoever booked it next. That return sector exists already: the fuel burns, the crew is on duty, the charges are paid. The operator would rather recover part of it than none.
Four constraints.
Accept them and it's the best deal in the business.
We set them out in full, because this is where every disappointment comes from when someone books an empty leg without knowing what they are buying.
The time doesn't move
Departure is what it is, or shifts by very little. The aircraft has a commitment afterwards, and that is what rules.
The route doesn't change
It goes from that airport to that other one. You can't add a stop, you can't move the arrival fifty kilometres.
It can disappear
If the paid flight that creates it is moved or cancelled, the empty leg no longer exists. That is the real risk, and it is the reason for the discount.
You get the aircraft that's flying
You don't choose the category: you take the one that is coming back. It may be bigger than you need, or smaller than you'd like.
The alpine winter breathes once a week,
and every breath leaves an aircraft empty.
From December to April, the Saturday changeover moves dozens of aircraft in the same direction: full going up, empty coming back. Anyone who knows that rhythm buys well, and pays a fraction.
Climbing into the Alps
- London and Paris → Geneva, Chambéry, Sion
- Milan and Turin → Geneva, Salzburg, Innsbruck
- Munich and Zurich → Chambéry and Grenoble
Aircraft go up full on Saturday morning. The return the same afternoon is almost always empty.
Coming down empty
- Geneva and Chambéry → northern Europe
- Salzburg and Innsbruck → Germany and the United Kingdom
- Samedan → Zurich and Milan, before sunset
There are no night operations at Samedan: the window shuts at sunset, and in December that means mid-afternoon.
When the whole region empties at once
- 22 and 23 January 2027, right after the World Economic Forum
- 24 and 25 January 2027, at the end of the Hahnenkamm
- 2 and 3 January, the New Year return
- The White Turf Sundays: 7, 14 and 21 February 2027
These are the dates when the most aircraft are already in position and have to head home at the same moment.
Fewer flights, and you have to catch them
- Geneva, Zurich, Milan and Lyon → northern European bases
- Repositioning between bases, when an aircraft changes region
- Returns after the summer mountain fixtures
- Return legs to the Gulf after the festive season
Outside winter, alpine empty leg volume collapses. Few flights are left, and you catch them through the alert list — not by hunting for them.
Tell us where you want to go.
We'll write the moment one opens up.
No newsletter, no generic offers. Just a message when something really comes up on your routes, on your dates.
We reply within 3 hours, as everywhere on this site. But empty-leg requests jump the queue ahead of everything else: that seat exists only until the aircraft leaves, and whoever comes second finds it already sold.