Empty leg flights to and from Scotland

Scotland is one country with several quite different aviation markets inside it. The central belt runs on the London shuttle, the north east on the energy industry and Norway, the Highlands on golf, whisky and the sporting estates, and the islands on turboprops, short runways and, at Barra, a beach that disappears under the tide twice a day.

What they share is geography. Very few business jets are based north of the border, so most aircraft that land here have either flown in empty or will fly out empty, and those one way sectors are exactly what an empty leg is. Choosing the airport, reaching the islands, finding the nearest runway to St Andrews or Speyside and allowing for the new Scottish departure tax from April 2027 are the decisions that shape a trip here. The three largest cities each have a guide of their own, for Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Empty legs across Scotland right now

The board below collects every sector our operator network has released that starts or finishes at a Scottish airport. It matches on airport codes as well as city names, so a flight into Kirkwall, Stornoway or Islay appears alongside Edinburgh and Glasgow instead of being lost.

Where Scottish sectors come from

Four streams of traffic produce most of the repositioning flights in the country, and each one keeps its own timetable.

Which Scottish airport to fly into

These seven mainland airports cover almost every private trip that does not end on an island. The right one is seldom the one nearest the city you have heard of: it is the one nearest to where you are actually going, with a runway long enough for the aircraft doing the flying.

Two rules settle most choices. For golf, pick the field by the course rather than by the city: Prestwick for Ayrshire, Dundee for St Andrews and Carnoustie, Inverness for everything north of the Cairngorms. For a heavy long range aircraft, Prestwick has the runway to leave with full tanks and Glasgow comes next, while Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee are at their best with light and midsize jets.

Private terminals across Scotland, and what is inside them

Ground handling in Scotland runs from a building that opened at Glasgow in 2026 to an island terminal shared with the morning scheduled flight. This is what you will find at each airport, and the hours each one actually keeps.

What to expect on the ground

Flying private is simple at every Scottish airport, but the details change once you leave the main ones behind.

Flying to the Scottish islands

More of Scotland can be reached by air than most visitors expect, but not all of it by jet. The table shows what each island runway will take, together with Campbeltown on the Kintyre peninsula, and what to know before you book.

Two practical points follow from the table. Empty legs to the islands themselves are rare, because few jets go there, so the usual plan is a sector into Glasgow, Inverness or Aberdeen and a short turboprop charter for the last leg, booked in the same enquiry. And an arrival from abroad straight onto an island has to be arranged in advance with the airport and the border authorities, which is why most itineraries clear customs on the mainland first.

Golf, whisky and the estates: the nearest runway

The great names of Scottish golf, whisky and field sports are rarely next door to the big airports. This is where each one sits in relation to a runway, with typical times by car.

Leuchars deserves a paragraph of its own, because older guides still recommend it. The former RAF station five miles from St Andrews received around a hundred private aircraft in the two years to October 2025, but its radars were withdrawn on 1 July 2026 and civil flights ended with them. For The Open at St Andrews in July 2027 the choice is Dundee, fourteen miles from the Old Course, for light and midsize jets, or Edinburgh with a helicopter for the last twenty five minutes. With Dundee's hours under review after its last airline leaves, the window there is confirmed with the booking rather than assumed.

What the ground costs

Handling in Scotland is generally cheaper than in the London area. The line that will change most over the next two years is tax, because Scotland takes over the departure duty from April 2027.

The Highlands and Islands exemption is worth understanding before you book the return. At the moment a departure from any airport in the region, Inverness, Wick, Kirkwall, Sumburgh, Stornoway and Islay among them, pays no Air Passenger Duty, and that includes private flights. Under the new tax the exemption continues for flights from the region to anywhere else in the UK, is extended to flights into the region from elsewhere in Scotland, and ends for international departures. The Scottish Government has also proposed that private jets should fall outside it altogether, so until the detail is final, treat the tax as payable on a private departure after 1 April 2027. It appears as its own line in every quote we send.

Positioning is what makes a Scottish charter expensive. With so few jets based here, a quote out of Inverness or Aberdeen usually includes an aircraft flying up from England before the trip begins, and an empty leg is the one booking where that flight simply does not exist.

Air, road or ferry: how long it actually takes

Inside Scotland the case for a short flight is stronger than the distances suggest, because the islands add a ferry and the Highland roads are slow.

The same logic applies to helicopters. From Inverness a helicopter reaches Skye or a west coast estate in well under an hour, where the road takes two and a half hours or more, and Knoydart has no road connection at all.

Popular routes across Scotland, and which way they run empty

Each of these routes starts at the Scottish airport that produces it most often. Prices are guide figures for the whole aircraft on a repositioning sector, and the aircraft type and the charter price for each route sit in the charter price table for Scotland.

For anything crossing the Atlantic, Prestwick is the airport to watch. The main runway is close to three kilometres, the handler works through the night and the field has been a refuelling stop for transatlantic traffic for decades, so a heavy jet can leave with full tanks at any hour. When a New York sector does come up in Scotland, it is most likely to be from here or from Glasgow.

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 Scotland from abroad

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom for immigration and customs, so the rules are British ones. A few of them matter more here than elsewhere.

• Clear in on the mainland, then fly on. An international arrival normally clears customs at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick, Aberdeen or Inverness, and the hop to an island afterwards is domestic. Going straight to a smaller field from abroad is possible only by prior arrangement.
• Passenger details go in before the flight. The operator files a report naming everyone on board, with dates of birth, nationalities and passport numbers, for any movement into or out of the country. We collect the details with the booking so nothing is left for the day.
• Electronic travel authorisation. Visitors from countries that do not need a visa now require an ETA before travelling to the UK, and it applies on a private flight exactly as it does on a scheduled one. It costs twenty pounds and is valid for two years, or until the passport expires if that comes first. Since 25 February 2026 the operator's arrival report checks it automatically, so a passenger without one cannot board. Operating crew are exempt.
• Guns for the season need a permit first. A visitor from outside Great Britain bringing a shotgun or rifle needs a Visitor Permit from Police Scotland, applied for by a sponsor who lives in Great Britain, usually the estate or the host. Processing takes up to six weeks, and a European Firearms Pass on its own is not enough. Ammunition travels only with an operator approved to carry it, and usually within five kilograms per passenger.
• Departure tax. Air Passenger Duty until 31 March 2027 and Scottish Air Departure Tax from the following day. Either way it is charged per passenger leaving a Scottish airport and shown as a separate line on the quote.

Flight times into Scotland from the usual starting points abroad, for the aircraft that typically flies each route:

The crossing from New York is roughly an hour shorter than the return shown in the price table, because the prevailing westerly winds carry an eastbound flight and slow a westbound one.

Scotland's year for empty legs, month by month

Scotland keeps a calendar of its own, set by rugby, golf, whisky, the shooting seasons and the festivals. The weeks that matter most follow events rather than school holidays: the golf championships in July, and the festivals and the grouse season in August.

Across the country, the months to aim for are March, April, May, September and October. The pattern to remember is the one every big Scottish event creates: arrivals bunch up before it and departures bunch up the day after, and it is the departures that come to market as empty legs.

Three situations, three answers

Travelling with a dog, including a working one

Inside the United Kingdom there is nothing special to arrange. A dog flying from London to Inverness, or from Glasgow out to Islay, needs no approved route, only the operator's agreement to carry it, and that applies to the islands exactly as it does to the mainland.

Arriving from abroad is the narrow part, because both the operator and the route need the right approvals. Edinburgh and Glasgow are on the approved list for animals on private flights with a number of operators, while Aberdeen and the Highland airports are not, so a dog heading north usually lands in the central belt first. Gun dogs travelling to the estates follow exactly the same rules as pets, so tell us about them with the guns rather than on the day.

Questions about flying private to Scotland

Call +44 7857 574938, message the same number on WhatsApp, or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk. Tell us where in Scotland you are going rather than which airport, and we will choose the runway and watch the sectors that reach it.