Once travel restrictions were lifted following the Covid-19 lockdowns, private air carriers saw unprecedented demand for domestic air travel. Private operators who were previously available for last-minute, non-scheduled bookings were now only available weeks, if not months, in advance. This shift created a new opportunity – an excess of empty leg charter availability.

An empty leg is when a charter operator needs to reposition an aircraft to another location to either to service another flight reservation, or needs to move the aircraft back to its home base. Oftentimes these aircraft fly empty and air carriers are willing to take on passengers on these routes at a fraction of what it normally costs to fly private.

The difficult part is matching up those who need flights on the exact dates, times, and routes empty legs are available. EvoLux saw the opportunity to distribute these one-way charter opportunities to members as they became available in a way that’s never been done before!

EvoLux’s new empty leg search feature is being referred to as “The Hotel Tonight for Private Aviation”, as we provide access to private air charter deals as they become available in real time. You can now be notified when an empty leg charter special becomes available on routes important to you and plan your travel around them when it makes sense for your schedule. By choosing the SKYSHARE reservation option to organize your group on these lower cost empty leg charter specials, you can now truly fly private for the price of flying commercial!

Search empty legs on specific routes, search out of an area with no specific destination in mind, or search for empties arriving into an area with no set point of origin. Filter and sort results by aircraft type, aircraft amenities, date range, with prices already set by the operator, and radius up to 300 miles.

When you see an empty leg that works for you, the first step is to ‘Check Availability’ with the operator. This allows you to inquire about and modify the existing empty leg if circumstances allow, it then sends the proposal to the operator who will make a decision on the flight request. Also, if there is no price listed (TBD), this is your opportunity to bid on the flight. When and if the operator agrees you can either purchase the whole aircraft, using SkyPrivate, or split the fare with other users with the SkyShare booking option.

If an empty leg is not available on the dates and times needed, you can always always have the ability to build a custom charter.

Please feel free to reach out to our private travel advisors using our in app chat or call 1.855.4.EVOLUX (1-855-438-6589) if you have any questions or would like assistance with an upcoming trip!

To create an account, you can log in with Linkedln, Facebook, or Google or you can just go ahead and click “sign up now” and create a new username and password.

Once you create your account, go to your notification settings within your profile to add all of the routes you would frequently travel. For example, if you frequently travel between Florida and North Carolina you may want to add Boca Raton, Florida ( airport code BCT) as your departure and Asheville, North Carolina ( airport code AVL) as your arrival. You can choose to receive empty leg notifications within 0 to 300 miles of either one of the locations you entered. Since these are one-ways, you can also add a return trip with the same locations reversed for convenience on finding an empty leg option on a return trip, as well!

Given EvoLux is a mixed fleet marketplace containing helicopters, sea-planes, and light to heavy passenger jets, you may also want to be notified of empty legs and open SKYSHARE reservations on a variety of routes and aircraft types, so consider setting empty leg notifications on routes you would use for each aircraft type. Look for helipads or seaplane bases you could use in your travels and add those routes in addition to airports in order to be notified about charter charter specials aboard helicopters and amphibious aircraft. You never know.. you may need to jump over traffic one day and take advantage of a helicopter operator’s empty flight!

Once you add your city pair preferences, click the “add a route” button, but most importantly be sure to click the “Save Account Details” at the bottom of the page when you’re happy with your route settings. Depending on how often you would like to receive these empty leg charter opportunities, you can set the frequency of the email notifications to daily, weekly, or monthly. Daily notifications are suggested because these charter specials go quickly on popular routes. There’s also a setting to receive notifications when other members set their SKYSHARE reservations “Public” to share on the EvoLux Member Network so that you can take a seat and join their flight reservation if it’s a flight reservation that works for you.

Search available empty leg charter specials, or set up your profile with route notification settings to receive alerts on upcoming flights now!