Empty leg flights from London Luton Airport

London Luton is one of the busiest private jet airports in Europe, with roughly 26,700 private flights in 2023, fifth in Europe and second only to Farnborough in Britain. For anyone looking for a repositioning sector, that volume matters more than anything else: the more aircraft come and go, the more of them leave empty, and the more often something appears on the route you want.

Our office is inside the business aviation area here, on Percival Way, a few minutes from the ramp and the handling agents.

Empty legs at Luton right now

Sectors are released by operators through the day and are often taken within hours. If nothing on the board matches your plan, tell us the route and the window you can travel in and we will contact you when something does, including movements that never reach a public list.

Departing from London Luton

Arriving into London Luton

Why Luton produces so many empty legs

An empty leg exists because an aircraft has to be somewhere it is not. Three features of Luton make that happen often.

The airport in detail

The two private terminals

Luton offers a choice of handler, and the two are different in character rather than in quality.

On an empty leg you do not always get to choose: the sector belongs to the operator, and the operator has its own contract with a handler. We will tell you which terminal before you book, and the flight brief carries the address and the crew contact.

What the ground costs

Handling, landing and parking are billed by the airport and the FBO rather than by us, and they appear as their own lines in any quote. Luton publishes charges by aircraft weight and noise category, so these figures are indicative rather than a tariff.

Against Farnborough the difference is real but modest: handling there tends to cost more on a departure. On a charter that matters at the margins. On an empty leg it does not arise at all, because the airport comes with the sector.

Two things do move the number noticeably. Night movements carry a surcharge, and a higher one in summer. And hangarage is charged separately, with limited space that has to be booked ahead, particularly in winter and around the busiest weeks.

Parking, and why it matters in summer

One practical detail that catches people out. Ramp space at Luton is finite, and in the busiest weeks of the year it fills. When that happens, larger aircraft are sometimes required to drop passengers and reposition to Stansted, Farnborough or Oxford until the return.

For you as a passenger this changes nothing, but it changes the economics for the operator, and it is one of the reasons short notice sectors out of Luton in high summer are so often available cheaply. The aircraft has to move anyway.

Getting into London

The airport that wins is the one that gets you to your actual address fastest, not the one with the longest runway. These are typical off peak times from Luton.

By road, a chauffeur meets the aircraft on the ramp where the handler allows it, and the M1 is the constraint rather than the distance. By rail, a short transfer from the private terminal takes you to Luton Airport Parkway, where Thameslink runs into St Pancras and on through the City, which beats the car comfortably in the Friday evening peak. By helicopter, the London Heliport at Battersea is 15 to 20 minutes in the air and is worth arranging when the flight lands into evening traffic.

Three situations, three answers

Travelling with a dog or a cat

Animals usually travel in the cabin at your feet on a private flight, and Luton is one of the London airports approved for pets arriving on a private or charter flight. Two things have to line up on arrivals into Great Britain: the operator must hold the relevant approval to carry animals, and the route has to be an approved one, flights from Ireland excepted. That is a formal pairing rather than a preference, and it is checked per booking.

When you depart from Luton, the question is simpler, because the rules that apply are those of the country you are flying to. Tell us about the animal at the enquiry stage and we will filter the aircraft accordingly rather than discover the problem later.

Empty leg calendar for London Luton, month by month

Empty legs run against the traffic, so the month decides as much as the route does. This is how a normal year behaves here, based on how the corridors out of Luton actually move.

If you can choose when to fly, September, April, March and October are the months to aim for. If you cannot, the rule holds all year: in a busy month buy the direction nobody else wants, which in summer is the flight home and in winter is the flight out of the Alps.

Questions about flying from Luton

Call +44 7857 574938, message the same number on WhatsApp, or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk. Our office is at Percival Way, London Luton Airport, Luton LU2 9PA, open 07:00 to 23:00 seven days a week, with enquiries answered around the clock.