Empty leg flights to and from Los Angeles

Los Angeles is the centre of the film, television and music industries, and one of the busiest private aviation markets in the world. Jets from Britain usually land at Van Nuys, in the San Fernando Valley about 18 miles northwest of downtown, where US customs officers work inside a private terminal and no airline queue stands between the aircraft and the car. Beverly Hills is about half an hour away by road.

The crossing is long, about 11h 10m westbound in a Gulfstream G650, so only ultra long range jets fly it without a stop, and the prices here are for them. Empty legs between Britain and California are rare and follow two calendars: the entertainment industry, with awards season in winter and the Cannes festival in May, and the summer, when Californian families spend weeks in Europe. Many more sectors run inside the United States, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Aspen, San Francisco or New York, and one of them can add a second city to a single transatlantic trip.

Empty legs to and from Los Angeles right now

The board shows every sector that touches Van Nuys, Los Angeles International, Burbank, Santa Monica, Long Beach or Hawthorne. When those are quiet it adds flights at Camarillo, Orange County and Palm Springs, each a short hop from the city by jet. Under the board, the charter list gives a full charter price for the same Gulfstream G650 on dates you pick yourself.

Where Los Angeles sectors come from

Three patterns send aircraft in and out of Los Angeles with nobody on board.

For a traveller from Britain, a crossing to New York followed by a transcontinental empty leg from Teterboro to Van Nuys, one of the busiest private routes in America, can cost less than a nonstop charter and breaks eleven hours into two shorter flights. In autumn and winter the dry Santa Ana winds bring fires to the hills around the city, and temporary flight restrictions over a fire zone can move a departure or an approach at short notice.

Van Nuys Airport in detail

Los Angeles has half a dozen airports that take business jets, but Van Nuys handles more of them than any other, and it is where we send most flights from Britain.

Van Nuys is our default for Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Malibu and the Valley. We quote Los Angeles International instead when the jet would land outside the Van Nuys customs hours, since officers there clear private flights every day from 7 am to 11 pm, and we suggest Burbank or Long Beach for domestic legs to addresses east or south of downtown.

Where private passengers are handled at Van Nuys

Private terminals line both sides of the Van Nuys runways, and the operator chooses one when it books the flight. Arrivals from abroad begin at Signature West, where the customs station is, while domestic flights can use any of them.

Which terminal we pick depends on who is travelling and why: a family bound for Bel Air wants the quickest road south, a producer due in Century City wants a meeting room, and a crew staying a week wants a hangar. The quote names the terminal, and we give it to the driver and the caterer well before departure. Hangar space in Los Angeles is tight in awards season and around the Super Bowl, so a jet staying more than a few nights may have to park at another airport.

The terminal from a passenger's side

After eleven hours over Greenland, Canada and the Rockies, the arrival at Van Nuys is calm and private, if not always quick.

Customs at Van Nuys are rarely the difficult part; the weekday, the freeway and the fire season are what need planning, and all three are settled when the flight is booked.

Four rules that shape a Los Angeles trip

Get the aircraft, the operator, the weekday and the airport right, and the only remaining challenge is eleven hours in the air, which a G650 cabin with a proper bed makes surprisingly easy.

What the ground costs in Los Angeles

Airport charges in Los Angeles are small beside the price of the crossing; the new landing fee at Van Nuys, the customs charge and British duty make up most of the rest.

Britain charges the duty once, when the flight leaves a UK airport, and not at all on a departure from Jersey or Guernsey. The change in April 2027, when the higher rate extends to every private jet of 5.7 tonnes and above, matters little on this route, because the jets able to fly it nonstop already pay the higher rate.

Operators seldom leave an ultra long range jet idle in California for a fortnight, so a two week stay usually means four crossings: out full, home empty, out empty and home full. The two empty ones are the sectors that appear on the board, and our quote for your own trip shows the landing fee, the customs charge, the car and any onward hop beside the price of the aircraft.

LAX, Burbank and the other airports around Los Angeles

The Los Angeles basin offers a wide choice of airports for business jets, and the best one depends on the address, the hour and whether the flight arrives from abroad.

From Van Nuys to Beverly Hills, Malibu and beyond

Typical drives from Van Nuys with the roads clear. The Sepulveda Pass in the rush hours, and Friday afternoons on every freeway, can add 30 minutes or more.

Chauffeured cars and SUVs are the usual way to leave the airport, and firms that know Van Nuys follow the flight and wait at the terminal. For a house in the hills of Bel Air or Malibu, send the gate code and any access instructions with the booking, since many estates are hard to find by satellite navigation alone.

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

The prices below are for an entire Gulfstream G650 on a sector its operator has released because the jet must cross the Atlantic in any case. The charter list under the board shows the other side of the ledger: the same aircraft on dates of your own choosing costs well over twice as much. Times cover the flight only, and the westbound time is always longer, because the aircraft flies into the jet stream.

Crossings between Britain and California are among the scarcest sectors we see, and most are released only days before the flight. Sectors between Los Angeles and New York are far more common, so a traveller with some flexibility can often cover the leg between New York and California at an empty leg price and book only the Atlantic crossing as a charter.

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 Los Angeles from the UK

At Van Nuys the federal officers work inside a private terminal, so the formalities below take place a few steps from the aircraft rather than in an airline arrivals hall.

• Passport. The Foreign Office asks British visitors to hold a passport valid for the whole stay, and an ESTA is issued only against an electronic passport, a condition every British passport now in circulation meets.
• ESTA. The application costs about 40 dollars and should be made online at least 72 hours before departure. Once approved it allows repeated stays of up to 90 days for two years, or until the passport runs out, and the form now includes a selfie photograph.
• The operator's status. Passengers can travel on an ESTA aboard a business jet only if the company flying it has signed the Visa Waiver Program agreement with the US government. Otherwise a visa is needed, and that takes weeks to obtain.
• Mexico and the 90 days. A few days in Cabo or elsewhere in Mexico during the stay do not start a fresh 90 day period, and the flight back into the United States clears customs again.
• Duty free into the US. Without paying duty a visitor may bring a litre of alcohol from the age of 21, 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars and, after at least 72 hours in the country, gifts worth up to 100 dollars, with up to 100 cigars among them. Every item of food must be declared, and fresh produce and meat are largely refused.
• Cash. Anything over 10,000 dollars in currency or monetary instruments has to be declared to US officers when you arrive and again when you leave.
• Back in Britain. On a private flight into Great Britain, travellers of 17 and over may carry 4 litres of spirits, 18 litres of wine, with sparkling wine counted in from 1 October 2026, 42 litres of beer and 200 cigarettes, and any traveller may carry other goods up to 270 GBP. Californian cheese, charcuterie and any other meat or dairy product must stay behind.

Empty leg calendar for Los Angeles, month by month

Los Angeles has no off season in the air: the entertainment calendar fills the winter, Europe draws the city away in summer, and the mountains and deserts of the West take the holidays.

For a transatlantic sector, watch June and July westbound, late August eastbound and the weeks around the Oscars. For domestic legs the best moments are Sunday evenings and the days after big events: Super Bowl week, Coachella and the holidays.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Los Angeles with a dog or a cat

Federal rules come from the CDC, and California adds one of its own. A dog from Britain must be at least six months old and microchipped, and must have lived for the past six months only in Britain or other countries without dog rabies; the owner submits the CDC Dog Import Form online and carries the receipt, and the dog may then land at any US airport, Van Nuys included. Cats need nothing from the CDC. California asks for proof of rabies vaccination for dogs over four months old, and a recent health certificate from your vet is still worth carrying, since operators often ask to see one.

Coming home is where the paperwork is heaviest. Britain lets a pet in from a private flight only if both the route and the operator hold approval for animals, and only when the animal is microchipped and was vaccinated against rabies at least 21 days before arrival. Dogs need a tapeworm treatment from a vet one to five days before landing, and every animal needs a Great Britain health certificate from a USDA accredited vet, endorsed by the USDA, and must land within ten days of that endorsement. Tell us about the pet at the start, and we will offer only operators that carry animals.

Questions about flying private to Los Angeles

Call +44 7857 574938 , message the same number on WhatsApp , or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk . Tell us which part of Los Angeles you are heading to, your dates, the number of passengers and bags and whether a pet is travelling, and we will come back with suitable sectors, a full charter price, the ground costs and confirmation that the operator is cleared to carry ESTA passengers.