Empty leg flights to and from Paris

Private flights to Paris land at Le Bourget, the airfield where Lindbergh came down in 1927 and which has seen no airline traffic since around 1980. It is now the busiest business aviation airport in Europe, with around 55,000 private movements a year, seven handlers each running a terminal of its own, and the centre of Paris 20 to 40 minutes away by road. From most UK airports the flight takes an hour or a little more.

Volume is what makes Paris good for empty legs. Hundreds of aircraft pass through Le Bourget every week, many of them based there, and a short hop across the Channel is exactly the kind of flight an operator repositions without a second thought. Fashion weeks, the Six Nations, Roland-Garros and the Air Show add their own waves.

Empty legs to and from Paris right now

The board below lists the sectors our operator network has released into or out of Le Bourget, Charles de Gaulle and Orly. When Paris itself is quiet, flights into Pontoise, Toussus-le-Noble and Beauvais follow underneath, since each of them is within reach of the city by car.

Where Paris sectors come from

Three things keep aircraft moving between Paris and Britain, and each of them leaves repositioning flights behind.

Paris Le Bourget Airport in detail

What matters when you plan a flight into Le Bourget, from the runways and night rules to customs and the ground rules on the apron.

The seven terminals at Le Bourget

Le Bourget has no main terminal. Each handler runs its own building on the edge of the apron, with its own lounges, car park and customs, and the operator of your aircraft chooses which one to use. If you have a favourite, tell us and we will ask for it.

The terminal from a passenger's side

Because each handler has a building of its own, arriving at Le Bourget feels more like pulling up at a small hotel than at an airport. What changes from one terminal to the next is the size of the lounges and the extras; the steps from car to aircraft are the same everywhere.

Twenty minutes at the terminal before departure is normally enough. The time that matters is 22:15: a jet has to leave its stand by then, so a dinner that runs late in Paris can turn a flight home into a flight the next morning.

Four rules that shape a Le Bourget trip

Le Bourget is easier to use than most big airports, with no slots or queues, but a few rules decide the timing of every trip.

For empty leg passengers, Le Bourget has a plain advantage: nowhere in Europe sees more private aircraft come and go, and with no slots to protect, an operator can release a sector and fly it at short notice. Most sectors between Paris and Britain are light jets, but the choice changes by the hour.

What the ground costs, and the French taxes

Flying into Paris costs nothing in French tax. Flying out does, and the amount depends on the aircraft.

The solidarity tax applies to every passenger on a charter of nineteen seats or fewer leaving a French airport, Le Bourget included. For a party of four flying home to Britain it comes to 1,680 euros in a jet and 840 euros in a turboprop such as the PC-12, and it is charged in exactly the same way on an empty leg once passengers are on board. The airport noise tax is small by comparison and is built into the operator's price.

An empty leg saves the part of a charter that the passenger never sees: the aircraft flying out to collect you, or flying home after dropping you, with nobody on board. On a trip as short as London to Paris that positioning can be half the cost of the whole booking.

Charles de Gaulle, Orly and the smaller Paris airfields

Le Bourget suits almost every private flight into Paris, but these are the other options, and when each of them makes sense.

From Le Bourget to the city and beyond

Le Bourget is on the north side of Paris, so the Stade de France, Gare du Nord and Charles de Gaulle are close, while the Left Bank and the west of the city take longer. Times are by road outside the rush hours.

A central address can take nearly as long to reach from Le Bourget as the flight took from London. On a weekday evening a helicopter to Issy-les-Moulineaux and a short drive is often the faster way to a table in Saint-Germain.

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

Paris is within two hours of almost every UK airport with business jet traffic, and most of these routes are flown by light jets, which keeps both charter and empty leg prices lower than on longer routes. Every figure is the lowest price we would expect for the whole aircraft on a repositioning sector, before passenger taxes; for the same aircraft booked as a charter on your own dates, see the price table further up.

The Six Nations is when the Scottish and Welsh routes come alive. In 2027 France play Wales at the Stade de France on Saturday 6 February and Scotland on Sunday 21 February, and the aircraft that bring supporters in are the ones looking for a return load afterwards.

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 Paris from the UK

A flight from Britain to Le Bourget is an arrival from outside the EU and the Schengen area, and a few rules follow from that.

• Passport. Your British passport needs to be less than ten years old when you enter France and to run for three more months after you leave. Visits are limited to 90 days in any 180.
• The Entry/Exit System. Every Schengen country has used it fully since April 2026. A photograph and fingerprints are taken at the first crossing and checked on later ones, and passports are no longer stamped.
• ETIAS. The EU travel authorisation has not started yet. When it does, it will cost 20 euros and cover three years of trips.
• Customs allowances. Travelling by air, an adult can bring in up to 430 euros of goods plus 200 cigarettes, a litre of spirits, four litres of still wine and sixteen litres of beer free of duty, and must declare cash of 10,000 euros or more.
• Meat and dairy. Meat, milk and dairy products from Britain may not be brought into the EU, apart from small quantities of infant milk and special medical food.
• Coming home. On the return each adult may carry 4 litres of spirits, 18 of still wine and 42 of beer into Britain duty free, and other goods worth up to 270 GBP, the lower limit that applies to arrivals by private aircraft. Guests who hold neither a British nor an Irish passport may need a UK electronic travel authorisation, and the passenger list goes to UK border control before departure.
• Taxes both ways. Britain taxes the flight out and France the flight home, and the two appear as separate lines in every quote.

Empty leg calendar for Paris, month by month

Paris is busy all year, but its calendar of shows, matches and fashion weeks decides which weeks are expensive and which are full of empty sectors.

April and November give the most for the money, and the days after a big event beat the days before it. June, with Roland-Garros, the Air Show and menswear in the space of three weeks, is the month to book a charter early and treat an empty leg as a bonus.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Paris with a dog or a cat

To fly from Britain into France, a dog or cat must be microchipped, vaccinated against rabies at least 21 days beforehand and travel on an animal health certificate that an Official Veterinarian signed within the previous ten days. An EU pet passport held by a British resident has not been valid for this since 22 April 2026. France also refuses category 1 dogs, attack types such as pit bulls and Tosas without a recognised pedigree, and category 2 dogs, pedigree Rottweilers among them, must be muzzled and on a lead in public places.

For the journey back, a dog needs a tapeworm treatment from a vet one to five days before it lands in Britain, and the operator must be approved to carry animals into Great Britain on that route. A vet appointment in Paris is easy to arrange, but book it when you book the flight. If a pet is coming, say so in your first message: sectors whose operator cannot carry animals are then left out of what we send.

Questions about flying private to Paris

Call +44 7857 574938, message the same number on WhatsApp, or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk. Send us the match, the show or the meeting with your dates, and we will keep an eye on Paris sectors both ways.