Empty leg flights to and from Faro

Faro is the airport for the whole Algarve, from the golf estates of Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo twenty minutes down the road to Vilamoura, Albufeira, Carvoeiro and the wilder western coast around Lagos. Few airports in southern Europe are as British: in 2025, its first year above ten million passengers, travellers flying to or from the United Kingdom made up 46 per cent of all traffic, and London Gatwick was its busiest single route the year before.

Private flying follows the same British rhythm: second homes on the golf estates, golf breaks of three or four nights in spring and autumn, and villa holidays in every school break. Two airport rules shape the empty leg market more than anything else. A visiting aircraft may not normally stay longer than 72 hours, and nothing may land or take off between midnight and six in the morning. The first turns almost every trip longer than a long weekend into two positioning sectors; the second decides how late an evening flight from Britain can leave.

Empty legs to and from Faro right now

The board lists every sector our operators have released into or out of Faro. When Faro itself has nothing, the board falls back to the rest of southern Portugal and to Seville: Portimão near the western Algarve, Beja inland, Lisbon and Cascais further north, and Seville two hours east across the Spanish border. Beneath the board, the price list compares each regular route with a full charter of the same aircraft.

Where Faro sectors come from

Faro's empty legs grow out of three habits of the British Algarve trade, and unlike most holiday airports in the Mediterranean it has some in almost every month.

London to Faro takes roughly two hours forty minutes in the air, comfortably inside the range of even a light jet. Popular choices run from the Phenom 300 and the Citation XLS for smaller parties to the thirteen seat Legacy 600 for groups. Our route table is priced on the Praetor 600, a super midsize jet usually fitted with eight or nine seats and with room for a set of golf bags each, so a smaller jet on the same route will usually cost less, and a Legacy 600 for a group of twelve somewhat more.

Faro Airport in detail

Faro is an airline airport first: more than ten million passengers a year pass through a single terminal, and private flights share its apron, its runway and, unless a separate service is booked, its passport desks.

Three rows matter more than the rest: the 72 hour limit, the night closure and the ten day slot window. Together they explain why so many aircraft arrive and leave empty at Faro, and why the time of the flight home deserves as much thought as the flight out.

Where private passengers are handled at Faro

Faro has no separate private terminal building yet. Private passengers wait in the lounge of the company handling their flight and are escorted through security and passport control in the main terminal, normally alongside the airline traffic. Since late July 2026 the airport operator has also been selling a paid service with lanes of its own.

For a passenger the choice of handler matters less than the time of day. Outside the summer peak the whole process takes minutes; on a July morning, the queue at the border can be longer than the walk to the aircraft.

The terminal from a passenger's side

Faro works differently from airports with a private building of their own, and it helps to know the sequence before the day. This is how a departure and an arrival run.

The one thing worth planning is the timing. Arrive outside the late morning peak in summer, keep the flight home well clear of midnight, and the rest of the airport takes care of itself.

Four rules that shape a Faro trip

None of this makes Faro difficult. It simply explains why the Algarve produces more positioning sectors than its traffic would suggest, and why a flexible traveller can so often find one that fits.

What the ground costs in Faro

Portugal's charges on a private trip are modest, and they fall into three places.

Portugal has no passenger tax on private charters of the kind Italy and France charge. What it does have is a carbon tax on departures. Since July 2023, for aircraft of up to nineteen seats, it has been calculated per flight as 20 euros multiplied by the aircraft's maximum number of seats and by the distance in thousands of kilometres plus one. For a jet with nine seats flying from Faro to London, about 1,800 kilometres, that comes to roughly 500 euros, and for a twelve seat layout nearer 670 euros, however many people are actually on board. The flight into Faro pays nothing, and the operator collects the tax and adds it to the invoice.

Britain's own levy, Air Passenger Duty, falls on the outbound flight and not on the return. In the 2026 to 2027 tax year, jets weighing 20 tonnes or more, the Legacy 600 among them, pay its higher rate of 142 GBP per passenger to European destinations. A Praetor 600 weighs just under that line and is charged the standard 32 GBP, although from April 2027 the higher rate is due to cover every private jet above 5.7 tonnes. Tourist taxes are local: Loulé charges 2 euros a night from April to October and 1 euro in winter, capped at five nights and waived for under sixteens, and Faro, Albufeira, Portimão, Lagoa, Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António have taxes of their own.

Portimão, Beja, Lisbon and the other airports nearby

Faro serves the whole Algarve, and for most trips no other airport comes close. The alternatives matter mainly when the 72 hours run out, when a trip combines the Algarve with Lisbon or Seville, or when a very small aircraft wants to land near the western coast.

From the airport to Quinta do Lago, Vilamoura and the western Algarve

Faro Airport sits at the eastern end of the busiest stretch of the Algarve coast, and the golf estates begin a few kilometres to the west. The times below are for a car outside the rush; on summer Saturdays, when villa weeks change over, allow a little more.

The A22 along the Algarve has been toll free since the start of 2025, so neither a transfer nor a hire car pays anything to use it, while the A2 to Lisbon still charges tolls. Helicopters are rarely needed here, because the main golf estates are less than half an hour away, but local operators fly transfers for up to five passengers by arrangement, for example to a villa on the western coast.

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

The figure in each row is what a single released sector usually sells for, and it covers the complete aircraft, whether two of you travel or nine. Chartering that jet for dates of your own choosing is about two and a half times dearer; the precise charter figure for every route sits in the price list below the board. Flight times count only the time airborne, so add around thirty minutes at either end for the ground.

Two things set Faro apart from the other holiday airports on our board. The 72 hour limit means that any stay of four nights or more almost always produces two sectors, so the Algarve board is fuller than its private traffic alone would suggest. And because golf, second homes and school holidays overlap, sectors appear in most weeks of the year, with the quietest spells in early December and after the New Year.

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 Faro from the UK

Portugal is in the Schengen area and Britain is not, so every private flight between them crosses the EU's external border, and Portuguese officers check it in the main terminal at Faro.

• Passport. Portuguese officers check that the passport was issued within the last ten years and that it will still be valid three months after your planned departure from the Schengen countries. The Algarve counts towards the same limit of 90 days in any 180 as every other Schengen country, which matters to owners who spend long winters here.
• Entry/Exit System. Portuguese border officers enrol British visitors in the EU's digital register on the first crossing, with a photograph and, for anyone twelve or older, fingerprints, and afterwards check each traveller against that record. It replaced passport stamps at every Schengen border in April 2026.
• ETIAS. Not in force yet. In July 2026 the launch was put back to 2027, with no exact date; it will then cost 20 euros and cover three years, or until the passport runs out if that comes sooner.
• Customs on arrival. Travellers from outside the EU may bring tobacco and alcohol within the usual duty free limits, and other goods up to 430 euros a head; anything above that, and cash of 10,000 euros or more, must be declared. Meat and dairy products from Britain are not allowed into Portugal.
• Across the border to Spain. Portugal and Spain are both in Schengen, so a drive to Seville or Huelva involves no passport control, although you should still carry your passport.
• Flying home. Back in Great Britain, the duty free allowance per adult is 42 litres of beer, 18 litres of wine, 4 litres of spirits, 200 cigarettes and 270 GBP of other goods, and meat and dairy products from the EU must be left behind. From 1 October 2026 sparkling wine falls within the wine allowance and cider within the beer one. Any member of the party holding another nationality should confirm in good time whether the UK's electronic travel authorisation applies to them.
• Taxes. Air Passenger Duty on the way out of Britain, the Portuguese carbon tax on the way out of Portugal, and a municipal tourist tax on nights in most Algarve towns, Loulé, Faro, Albufeira and Portimão among them.

Empty leg calendar for Faro, month by month

The Algarve has three seasons for private flying: golf in spring and autumn, families in the school holidays, and a quieter but never empty winter. The cards show what fills each month.

Value hunters should watch southbound sectors from mid August to the end of the month, and northbound ones in the first half of July. For the easiest trip, choose spring or autumn: the golf is at its best, the sea is warming by May and still warm in October, and aircraft move between Britain and the Algarve every week.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Faro with a dog or a cat

Since 22 April 2026 the paperwork for taking a pet from Britain to any EU country has been the same: a microchip, a rabies vaccination given at least 21 days before the journey, and an animal health certificate issued by an official vet within ten days of travel, because EU pet passports held by people living in Britain are no longer accepted. Faro Airport is one of Portugal's designated entry points for pets arriving from outside the EU, with its own veterinary contact at the national food and veterinary authority, so the check on arrival is routine; tell the handler about the animal in advance, because departures with a pet also have their documents checked. Portugal requires dogs of the breeds it classes as potentially dangerous to be muzzled and on a lead in public, and most Algarve beaches keep dogs off during the bathing season, apart from a few designated ones. From January to April, keep dogs away from pine woods, where the hairy nests of processionary caterpillars can cause severe reactions, and ask your vet at home about protection against the sand flies that carry leishmaniasis.

The flight home needs the most care. British rules let dogs, cats and ferrets in only on an approved route with an approved operator, and dogs need a vet's tapeworm treatment no less than 24 hours and no more than five days before landing. English speaking vets across the Algarve see this request often, so fix the appointment at the same time as the flight, and tell us about the pet at the outset: we will then quote only operators that carry animals.

Questions about flying private to Faro

Call +44 7857 574938 , message the same number on WhatsApp , or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk . Tell us which estate or town you are heading for, the dates, the number of travellers and how many golf bags are coming, and we will reply with the sectors that fit and the price of the same trip as a charter.