Empty leg flights to and from Luxembourg

Luxembourg is a small country with an outsized role in finance and in the European Union. Investment funds domiciled there held some 6,687 billion euros at the end of July 2026, and the Kirchberg plateau houses the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Investment Bank and the European Court of Auditors, while the Council of the EU holds its sessions in the city in April, June and October. Many private flights between Britain and Luxembourg are therefore business trips of a day or two, with weekends in the Moselle vineyards, family visits and National Day celebrations on top. The flight is short: about 500 kilometres from the London airports, or roughly seventy minutes in a light or midsize jet, and on landing the clocks move one hour forward.

Almost every private flight to the country lands at Luxembourg Airport at Findel, code LUX, about 7 kilometres east of the city centre. Business aircraft use the Business Aviation Center, a separate terminal about a kilometre from the airline halls, open every day from 06:00 to 22:00, where police and customs officers clear passengers in the building in about ten minutes.

Luxembourg sectors available today

The list below shows every sector we hold into or out of Luxembourg. When Luxembourg is quiet, it adds flights at Saarbrücken, Metz and Hahn, three airports in Germany and France within about an hour and a quarter of Luxembourg City by road. The second table puts a regular charter price on the same aircraft types for Luxembourg trips on dates of your own choosing, which shows at a glance how much a released sector saves.

Why jets fly empty between Britain and Luxembourg

Luxembourg's empty legs follow the rhythm of a financial and institutional capital: teams fly in for a board meeting, a fund launch or a hearing and fly out again within a day or two, and for longer stays the aircraft often leaves Findel in between. Five features of the Luxembourg market produce those sectors in both directions.

Sectors are released in every season; May, June, September and October bring the largest numbers, driven by conferences, Council meetings and bank holiday weekends. With so many aircraft based at Findel, the sectors from Britain towards Luxembourg often come up at short notice, once a jet has dropped its passengers in the UK and needs to return.

Luxembourg Airport at Findel in detail

Luxembourg Airport is run by the Société de l'Aéroport de Luxembourg. It handled 5.36 million passengers in 2025, a record for the airport, and it is the home base of Cargolux, one of the large all cargo airlines of Europe, so wide body freighters share the runway with airliners and business jets. Airline passengers use Terminal A, opened in 2008, and the smaller Terminal B; private flights have their own building and apron, the Business Aviation Center, which opened on 1 February 2008.

For a crew, Findel is a simple airport: one long runway with instrument approaches, fuel and handling on the spot and a short taxi to the business aviation apron. What needs planning is the clock and the weather. A return in the evening is timed to leave well before the closure at 23:00, a stay of more than three days is announced in advance, and on autumn and winter mornings, when the plateau at 376 metres is prone to fog, the timetable allows a margin and the handler books de icing for an aircraft that has stood outside overnight.

The night closure and the 72 hour rule at Findel

Three rules decide when and for how long a private jet can use Luxembourg Airport. We check each of them at the moment of booking, so the day of travel brings no surprises.

Evening sectors deserve particular attention. An empty leg leaving Findel in the evening has been planned by the operator around the closure, yet any shift in its schedule can push it past the limit, so we recheck the departure time twenty four hours ahead and pass on any change immediately.

The Business Aviation Center, VIP services, the lounge and restaurants

Private passengers at Findel do not normally set foot in the airline terminal. The Business Aviation Center stands apart from Terminals A and B, with free parking at its door and the business aviation apron in front of it, and its staff deal with the border, customs, screening and baggage for every private flight. Terminal A matters to a private traveller mainly for a meal before the flight or when one direction of the trip is on an airline.

The private terminal, the airport's VIP welcome, the business lounge and the panoramic restaurant each serve a different traveller, keep different hours and are paid for in a different way.

Handling at Findel is compulsory and coordinated by the Business Aviation Center, so the operator arranges it with the aircraft; any request for the VIP welcome, a particular car or a meal on board is best made when the flight is booked.

From the aircraft to your car at Findel, step by step

From the aircraft steps to the car door, a landing at the Business Aviation Center usually takes a quarter of an hour, and leaving follows the same path the other way.

Landing time, days on the apron, the driver and the meals on board are settled before departure, all within the same booking as the aircraft.

Five points to settle before a Luxembourg trip

Any of the five can move the schedule or the cost of a Luxembourg trip, which is why every quote we send addresses them from the start.

From Findel to the city, the Moselle and beyond

The airport sits just outside the city, so most addresses in Luxembourg are a short drive from the Business Aviation Center, and the country is small enough that its far corners are about an hour away. Each driving time assumes a chauffeured car in free flowing traffic, and at rush hour it can grow two or three times longer.

Tram line 1 runs from the airport through Kirchberg to the centre and the station, and buses, trams and second class trains are free throughout the country, but with luggage a car is simpler, and the driver waits at the Business Aviation Center whatever time the aircraft lands.

What a Luxembourg trip adds to the bill

A flight to Luxembourg carries fewer extra charges than a flight to France or Germany: British duty on the way out, the airport and handling fees inside the operator's price, and no departure tax added by Luxembourg for the flight itself.

Air Passenger Duty is charged only when the flight leaves the UK, and Luxembourg, about 310 miles from London, falls in Band A. Until 31 March 2027 each passenger pays 32 GBP on a private jet of 5.7 to 20 tonnes and 142 GBP above 20 tonnes; after that date one rate of 146.63 GBP applies to all private jets from 5.7 tonnes up. Lighter aircraft such as a Citation M2 or a Pilatus PC-12 pay no duty at all, flights from Jersey and Guernsey are outside it, and from April 2027 flights leaving Scotland pay the Scottish Air Departure Tax instead, with a separate Scottish tax on private jets planned from April 2028.

Luxembourg levies nothing on the passenger for the flight; in September 2026 the Ministry of Mobility said that no specific rule restricts private flights by distance and made no commitment to tax them. The airport's landing, passenger, parking and terminal navigation charges and the fee for the compulsory handling are all real costs, but they are already included in the price we quote for the charter or the empty leg. Hotel rooms carry VAT at the reduced rate of 3 per cent, which hotels include in the price they quote.

Saarbrücken, Metz, Hahn and the other airfields around Luxembourg

Findel is the right airport for nearly every private trip to Luxembourg, since no other airfield in the Grand Duchy takes business jets. Across the borders, five airfields can serve a trip when Findel is closed for the night or when the journey continues into the region.

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

Each figure is the price of the entire aircraft on a sector that would otherwise run with no one on board, whether two seats are filled or all of them; times shown are flight times. London and Findel are about 500 kilometres apart, a short hop for every aircraft on the list, from a Pilatus PC-12 turboprop on the Southampton route, a little slower than the jets, to a Challenger 350 for the larger parties. For fixed dates, the Luxembourg charter price list gives the standard fare for each of these aircraft.

Business travel shapes the pattern: many trips start on a Monday or Tuesday and end by Thursday, so empty sectors between Britain and Luxembourg appear most often at the beginning and end of the working week. Jets with a home base at Findel create sectors in the other direction throughout the year, each time they leave clients in Britain and fly back empty.

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.

Entering Luxembourg: passports, customs and tax free

Luxembourg belongs to the EU and to Schengen, and its village of Schengen on the Moselle gave the agreement its name, while Britain belongs to neither. A private flight from the UK to Findel therefore crosses the external border of Schengen, and the police and customs check it at the Business Aviation Center.

• Passport. It must have been issued within the last ten years and stay valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area; a document that falls short of either condition can mean refusal at Findel.
• The 90 day rule. Holders of British passports can spend up to 90 days in every rolling 180 day period in Schengen visa free, and a night in Luxembourg uses the same allowance as a night in Paris, Brussels or Berlin.
• Entry/Exit System. The digital record that replaced passport stamps has been fully in use since April 2026: on the first entry the police photograph each traveller and, from the age of twelve, take four fingerprints.
• ETIAS. The travel authorisation for visitors without a visa is not yet required. Its start was put back in July 2026 to a date in 2027 that has not been fixed, and once it starts every visitor will need one, valid for three years, with a fee of 20 euros charged only to those aged 18 to 70.
• Customs. Each adult arriving from the UK may bring into Luxembourg, free of duty, goods worth up to 430 euros, 200 cigarettes, a litre of spirits or 2 litres of drinks up to 22 per cent, 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer. Anyone carrying 10,000 euros or more in cash or equivalent instruments has to declare it on arrival.
• Food from Britain. A ham sandwich or a piece of British cheese packed for the flight counts as meat or dairy from outside the EU, and it cannot be brought in.
• Tax free. Visitors who live outside the EU can reclaim VAT on purchases of at least 74 euros on one invoice, if the goods leave the EU within 90 days and customs stamp the forms on departure; the refund is paid to a card.
• Coming home. The return to a British airfield on a private aircraft comes with a personal duty free limit for each adult of 200 cigarettes, 42 litres of beer, 18 litres of wine, 4 litres of spirits or alternatively 9 litres of fortified wine, plus 270 GBP of other goods. From 1 October 2026 sparkling wine counts towards the wine limit and cider towards the beer limit, so a party can still bring home a few cases of Moselle crémant between them.

Empty leg calendar for Luxembourg, month by month

Luxembourg is a working capital first, so its busiest months follow the business and EU calendars rather than the beach season, with long weekends and festivals adding their own peaks.

Look for the widest choice of sectors in May, June, September and October. Travellers with fixed dates who want an easy hotel booking will find January, February and high summer the least crowded.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Luxembourg with a dog or a cat

To enter Luxembourg from Britain, a dog, cat or ferret must be microchipped, vaccinated against rabies at least 21 days before travel and accompanied by an animal health certificate that an official vet signed within the ten days before arrival; customs inspect the papers at the Business Aviation Center. British pet passports are not accepted, and since 22 April 2026 an EU pet passport is no longer accepted for entry into the EU with a pet living in Great Britain, so each journey needs a fresh certificate. No blood test or worming is demanded for entry, and an owner may bring as many as five animals. Mention the animal in your first enquiry so the ground team can have customs ready when you land.

Coming back is more demanding. Only an operator on the UK government's approved list may fly the pet into Britain, and a dog must be treated for tapeworm by a vet between 24 and 120 hours before landing, with the treatment written up. Arrange that visit with a vet in Luxembourg near the end of your stay and carry the record, and we will contact only operators cleared to carry animals.

Luxembourg 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 . Tell us when you want to travel, the number of passengers, any large items of luggage and where in Luxembourg you need to be. Our answer sets any suitable empty legs against the charter fare, and a single booking takes care of the aircraft, the handling at Findel, the parking time and your driver.