Empty leg flights to and from Dublin

Dublin is one of the shortest international private flights a British traveller can take, and one of the busiest. On the figures of the European Business Aviation Association, Dublin handled 7,559 business aviation movements in 2023, and its busiest private route was Farnborough with 567, followed by Luton, Le Bourget, Biggin Hill and Stansted. Add the European head offices of American technology and pharmaceutical companies, the rugby at the Aviva Stadium and the racing at Leopardstown, and the Irish capital keeps a steady flow of aircraft crossing the Irish Sea in both directions.

The crossing is short enough that an aircraft is rarely worth parking. Dublin charges for its small private apron by the quarter hour and every movement needs a slot, so an aircraft that has dropped a party for a meeting or a match usually goes straight back to Britain. That return is the empty leg.

Empty legs to and from Dublin right now

The board below carries every sector our operator network has released into or out of Dublin. When Dublin itself is quiet, Weston, Shannon, Cork, Knock, Kerry and the Belfast airports appear underneath, since nothing on the island is more than a short hop from the capital.

Also moving across the other airports on the island of Ireland

Sectors on this list do not touch Dublin itself. They are shown because the fields are close enough that the drive rarely costs you more than waiting for the right sector does. Tell us which one interests you and we will confirm it is still open.

Where Dublin sectors come from

Three things put aircraft on the Irish Sea without passengers, and between them they keep the Dublin board busy in every month except the week of Christmas.

At Dublin itself the most common business aircraft in 2023 were the Citation Excel and XLS with 751 movements, the Phenom 300 with 528 and the Global with 484, a mix that reflects the corporate traffic. On the short crossings from Britain, though, a turboprop is often the sensible choice: the Pilatus PC-12 seats up to eight, costs far less per hour than a jet and arrives only a few minutes later on a flight of under an hour and a half, which is why the route prices quoted below are for a PC-12. The same routes on a light or midsize jet cost more, and we quote both.

Dublin Airport in detail

Dublin is a busy airline hub with a small private operation attached to it, and the rules for the second are shaped by the pressures on the first. Each line below affects how a private flight into Dublin is planned.

The two rows that shape a trip are parking and slots. Parking explains why so few aircraft wait in Dublin and so many sectors appear, and the slot tolerance of fifteen minutes explains why a long lunch in town can mean a new departure time rather than a relaxed one.

The private terminal, the handlers and the Platinum suites

A private passenger at Dublin passes through one of three places: a handler's own lounge, the new general aviation terminal or the airport's Platinum building. Which one depends on the handler your operator uses and on whether you have booked Platinum.

You rarely choose between them. The operator picks the handler, and the handler decides whether you pass through its own lounge, the new terminal or the Platinum building. If you want a meal and a private room before the flight, ask for Platinum when you book; otherwise the handler's route is quicker.

The terminal from a passenger's side

The Dublin routine from kerb to cabin, stage by stage, as a passenger from Britain meets it on the way in and on the way out.

Two things catch people out at Dublin: that the car cannot come to the aircraft, and that the catering has to come through the airport's one airside caterer or through Platinum. Tell the handler your plans a day ahead and neither is a problem.

Four rules that shape a Dublin trip

None of this makes Dublin difficult. A London to Dublin day trip by private aircraft is one of the simplest international journeys there is, and the handlers do it every day. The rules simply explain why the aircraft that brought you rarely stays, which is good news for anyone looking for a sector.

What the ground costs in Dublin

Ireland charges no passenger or departure tax on flights, having abolished its air travel tax in 2014, and it has no tourist tax on hotels. What you pay falls into three places.

The costs that do vary are the ones that depend on time. Parking is 3.90 euros a quarter hour in the light aircraft areas and more on airline stands, handlers charge extra for a call out outside their staffed hours, and the Platinum suites are priced by the party and the length of stay. Irish VAT is 23 per cent on most goods, which is why the Retail Export Scheme is worth using for any serious shopping on Grafton Street.

Weston, Shannon and the other Irish fields

Dublin is the natural airport for the capital and the east, but the rest of the island is close enough that the right airfield depends on where you are going rather than where you are flying from.

From the airport to the city, the golf and the castles

Dublin Airport is on the city's northern edge, close to the M1 and the M50, so most of the east coast is within an hour. The times below are estimates for a car outside the rush hour; at peak times the M50 ring road is notoriously slow.

For the castles and golf resorts in the west, a helicopter from Dublin turns a three hour drive into under an hour: an Irish operator quotes about fifty minutes to Ashford Castle against two hours forty five by road, and twenty five minutes to Ballyfin against an hour and forty. The handler can have it waiting beside the aircraft.

Popular routes between the UK and Dublin, and which way they run empty

Prices in the table are the typical asking figure for a released sector, per aircraft rather than per seat. Booking that same aircraft as an ordinary charter would cost two and a half to three times as much, and whenever an actual sector exists, the board at the top of the page lists it with both figures.

Weekday mornings and evenings are when the London and Manchester sectors appear, because most of the traffic is business travel booked a few days ahead. At weekends the pattern follows the sport: a party flown into Dublin on Saturday morning for the rugby leaves an aircraft with nothing to do until the evening or the next day, and on the short hops it almost always goes home in between.

Online calculator

If you want to see what your route would cost as a standard charter, so you have something to measure an empty leg against, use the calculator below. Fill in the airports, the dates and the number of passengers, add any preference on aircraft type, and we will send a written calculation by email or messenger. Please check your contact details carefully so that we can reply quickly.

The figure the calculator returns is an estimate for planning. The firm quote comes back from our consultants with the cost broken out line by line, and the price agreed there is the price written into the contract.

If you would rather skip the arithmetic, send us the route and the dates instead and a consultant will come back with both numbers, the charter price and any empty leg that fits.

Arriving in Dublin from the UK

Dublin is the one destination on our international list where the passport rules are simpler than anywhere else and the customs rules are not: the Common Travel Area covers people, the European Union covers goods.

• Identity. British and Irish citizens need no passport to enter Ireland from Britain, but Irish immigration officers may ask for proof of nationality at Dublin, and a passport is the simplest document to show. Carry one, or at the least photo identification that shows your nationality.
• Other passports. Anyone who is neither British nor Irish is checked like any other international arrival and normally needs an Irish visa if their nationality requires one. There are exceptions: the British Irish Visa Scheme lets Chinese and Indian nationals travel on a single visa, and a short stay waiver lets certain other nationalities who first entered the UK on a British visa visit Ireland without a separate one.
• No EES and no ETIAS. Ireland is outside the Schengen area, so the European Entry/Exit System does not apply there and ETIAS will not either. Nobody is fingerprinted on arrival, nothing needs applying for in advance, and where a passport needs an entry stamp it is still stamped by hand.
• Irish customs allowances. Arriving from outside the EU, each traveller aged 17 or over may bring 200 cigarettes, one litre of spirits or two litres of drinks up to 22 per cent, four litres of still wine and sixteen litres of beer. Other goods come in free up to 430 euros for anyone aged 15 or over, and 215 euros for younger children. Cash of 10,000 euros or more must be declared.
• Food. Meat and dairy products from Great Britain cannot be brought into Ireland in personal luggage, so leave them on the aircraft.
• The flight home. Landing back in Great Britain on a private aircraft, every adult has a duty free allowance of 270 GBP in goods plus drink: beer up to 42 litres, still wine up to 18 litres, and a choice between 4 litres of spirits and 9 litres of fortified wine; from 1 October 2026 sparkling wine counts within the wine allowance and cider within the beer allowance. Passengers without a British or Irish passport need a UK electronic travel authorisation unless they are legally resident in Ireland, and the operator's report to the British authorities will flag anyone without one.
• Taxes. Air Passenger Duty on the way out of Britain, and nothing on the way back from Ireland.

Empty leg calendar for Dublin, month by month

Dublin has no ski season and no beach season. Its calendar is set by business, rugby, racing and golf, and the cards below show how each month pulls aircraft in and what that does to the sectors that reach us.

May, October and November are the months for value. In March and September book the charter early; in March especially, watch the sectors out of Britain, because the aircraft collecting Irish racegoers for Cheltenham cross the Irish Sea empty.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Dublin with a dog or a cat

A pet flying from Britain to Ireland is entering the European Union from outside it, so the animal needs a microchip, a rabies vaccination given at least 21 days earlier and an animal health certificate signed by an official vet within ten days of travel. Only Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports may receive it, the airport must be told at least 24 hours in advance through the Department of Agriculture's advance notice portal, and a dog must be treated for tapeworm by a vet between one and five days before it lands.

Coming back to Great Britain is simpler than from anywhere else on our list. Britain exempts dogs coming straight from Ireland from its tapeworm rule and needs no approved route for the flight, so what remains is the chip, the rabies vaccination and the paperwork, all still required. If an animal is coming, say so at the start, and the airport and aircraft we suggest will already allow for it.

Dublin by private jet: questions from British travellers

Call +44 7857 574938 , message the same number on WhatsApp , or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk . Let us know where you are flying from, when, with how many people and how flexible the dates are, and we will send back every sector that fits alongside the price of a full charter.