Empty leg discounts for Black Friday & Cyber Monday
The concept of Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the days when retailers drop their prices in the lead up to Christmas – has been commonplace in the US for many years. But this year the major retail event seems to be becoming more and more popular outside the States.
Black Friday is this coming Friday, 28th November and sees the launch of the big in-store offers. This is followed by Cyber Monday on 1st December, when online prices follow suit. Cyber Monday in particular has gained more momentum in recent years, as online and mobile have become mainstream consumer buying behaviour.
While the private jet industry is yet to embrace this concept en masse, there are certainly some great deals to be had on empty legs during the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holiday period. Private jet empty legs are one-way repositioning flights on private jets, offered at a substantial discount.
An empty leg – sometimes referred to as an empty sector – comes about when a private jet is flying empty to start its next booked flight. The owner or operator will often be happy to sell this ’empty’ one-way flight at a big discount. This can often be a fraction of the full price, as much as 75% off.
For example if an aircraft is currently on the ground in Paris and is booked for a flight from Geneva to London, it will need to fly to Geneva to collect the passengers and to start the flight. So the Paris to Geneva flight would be a potential empty leg.
Obviously the operator of the aircraft would prefer to sell this as a full price charter. But unlike airline flights, which are scheduled very tightly to avoid flying aircraft empty wherever possible, the private jet market is highly fragmented, with bespoke routes and schedules arranged to fit each customer’s needs. So in reality, it is often very difficult to sell this flight to a private jet customer at full price. The operator may therefore be happy to cover their costs by selling it as an empty leg.
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