Empty leg flights to and from Southampton

Southampton is the airport for the Solent, and that is a more specific job than it sounds. The water between here and the Isle of Wight carries one of the largest sailing regattas in the world, the south coast yachting industry sits along its shore, and a good share of the private traffic through this field is going to a boat rather than to a building.

The airport itself is bigger than its reputation. It handles around twenty thousand aircraft movements a year, the runway was extended in 2023 and now runs to 1,887 metres, and the field sits at forty four feet above the sea, so nothing about performance is eroded by height.

Empty legs from Southampton right now

The board below shows what our operator network has released on south coast routes. Be realistic about the volume: this is a smaller market than the London fields. Be equally realistic about the upside, because Jersey and Guernsey are thirty five minutes away and start at around 1,800 GBP for the whole aircraft.

Where Southampton sectors come from

Three things move private aircraft in and out of the south coast, and the first of them floats. A fourth, the cruise port, has a section of its own, because it is the strongest single reason to use this airport.

The cruise port, and the ninety minutes it saves

Southampton is Britain's largest cruise port, handling over two million passengers a year. It is the home port for Cunard, including the transatlantic crossings to New York, and for most of the big British operators, across five terminals along the docks.

Here is the part worth doing the arithmetic on. Almost everyone flying in for a ship lands at Heathrow and then spends about ninety minutes in a car, or at Gatwick and spends closer to a hundred and ten. From this airport the cruise terminals are fifteen to twenty five minutes away. On a turnaround day, when embarkation runs to a fixed window and the ship does not wait, that difference is the whole argument for flying private into Southampton rather than into London and driving down.

Southampton Airport in detail

The operational facts that decide whether an aircraft, a time and a route work at this field.

The private terminal

There is a dedicated general aviation terminal away from the passenger building, with two handlers working it, one of them at a hangar at the northern end of the airfield. It is a working terminal rather than a showpiece, and at a field this size that is the right answer.

A quarter of an hour before a domestic departure and half an hour before an international one is plenty at a field this size. Which of the two handlers you use is decided by the operator on an empty leg, and it arrives in the flight brief with the address and the crew contact.

What the ground costs

Southampton is mid market by British standards, and the lines that move a quote here are seasonal.

That last line is the quiet advantage of the south coast. An aircraft based at Farnborough reaches this field in under half an hour, so the positioning cost on a charter is a fraction of what it is from Scotland or the islands. It means charter prices here start closer to London ones than the map suggests, and it also means a sector out of Southampton is genuinely worth taking rather than a curiosity.

The other fields on the south coast

This is a crowded part of the country for airfields. Two of the neighbours will take a jet, and two will not but are worth knowing about anyway.

Getting to the water and the region

Almost nobody flying privately into Southampton is going to the middle of Southampton. These are typical off peak times by road.

The railway station is worth a line of its own. It sits on the airport, London is a little over an hour away and Southampton Central is under ten minutes, which makes this field unusually easy for a group arriving from several directions at once. The covered walkway leads to the passenger terminal rather than the private one, so allow a short hop by car between the two. For the island, a helicopter is arranged alongside the flight where the schedule will not tolerate a ferry.

Popular destinations from Southampton, and which way they run empty

A handful of routes produce sectors week after week while most produce nothing. These are the first kind, and the top of the list is unusually short: six of the first seven are under an hour.

There is no New York and no Dubai in that table. The runway is a good deal better than it was before the extension, but 1,887 metres will not launch a long range aircraft with the fuel a crossing needs, so an intercontinental trip starts at Farnborough, about an hour away, or at one of the London fields, which is closer to two. We will say so rather than plan a fuel stop you did not ask for.

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 Southampton from abroad

The formalities are the same as at any British airport, with one local trap that catches people every summer.

• The Channel Islands count as international. An arrival from Jersey or Guernsey needs the same arrival report as one from France, because those islands sit outside the United Kingdom for customs purposes. It feels like a domestic hop and it is not one.
• Passenger details go in with the booking. Every passenger is submitted with a full name, a date of birth, a nationality and a passport number. The report goes by email to the Border Force duty officer at this airport, within a published notice period.
• 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.
• Air Passenger Duty on departures. Charged per passenger leaving a UK airport and shown as its own line in any quote we send, rather than folded into the total.

Empty leg calendar for Southampton, month by month

The Solent runs the year here. From May to September the water is the reason people come, and the first fortnight of August is the peak of the English sailing season. Outside that window this is one of the quieter and cheaper airports in the south of England.

September, March, April and October are the months to aim for, with November cheapest of all. The fortnight to plan around is the end of July into the first week of August, when the racing and the regatta overlap. The days immediately after the regatta finishes are among the best of the year, because several hundred visitors have to leave at once.

Three situations, three answers

Travelling with a dog or a cat

Leaving, it is the country you land in that sets the requirements, and we handle those as part of the booking. Coming home is the harder half: an approved operator and an approved route are both needed, and only a handful of British airports may receive an animal arriving on a general aviation flight.

The exception here is a useful one. Movements between the mainland and the Channel Islands do not need an approved route, and those are the two busiest corridors from this field, so a dog going to Jersey or Guernsey is about as simple as it gets. From the continent it is different, and we check what applies to your particular routing before anything is committed rather than afterwards.

Questions about flying private from Southampton

Call +44 7857 574938, message the same number on WhatsApp, or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk. Tell us the dates you can travel and we will watch the south coast corridors for you.