How to fly Private Jets at Airline Prices

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For the first class crowd, a private jet is the ultimate upgrade. But buying or chartering is too expensive for all but a few. So how do you get to fly on a business jet for business-class prices?

Fly empty sectors

The first option is to buy a seat on a 'deadhead' positioning flight. After a chartered plane has delivered its VIPs to their destination it has to fly empty back to base or onto its next pick-up point. Some charter companies offer seats on these flights at surprisingly low prices.

Around 40 percent of all private jet flights operate empty so there are rich pickings if you're savvy about it.

Of course, you lose the flexibility of picking the time and route but you get all the other amenities like private terminals, comfortable seats and the 'master of the universe' feeling.

Check out AirPartner's Empty Sector site. (They have a royal warrant to fly the Queen so you could be sitting in her seat one day.) They have flights from Van Nuys to Nice, France, Amsterdam to Kieve as well as shorter European hops for up to 75% off. A quick online search for 'empty leg' or 'deadhead flights' will reveal many other providers.

My own experience of this was exciting and disappointing in equal measure. My wife and I took a deadhead flight from Biggin Hill to the South of France a few years ago. The plan was to fly to Nice, which is where we booked our hotel but at the last minute, the plane had to go to Genoa and so we had to take a two-hour trip on a grotty Italian train to get to our final destination. It was like a glamorous night out that ends in the gutter. But for a few hundred pounds, the adventure was worth every penny. (But I prefer to fly myself when I can.)

Resurrect DayJet

A second option disappeared in 2008, when DayJet stopped trading. They were using Eclipse 500 very light jets to fly from smaller airports in Florida. They promised 'pay-per-seat, on-demand' travel. Members could request a flight from point a to point b and they would get confirmation and a price. However, if other members bought empty seats on that flight, the cost would go down. A clever booking system orchestrated the schedule, prices and availability. It's a good idea. James Fallows wrote a great article about it in The Atlantic. The technology lives on and perhaps this business model will reappear.

Social flights

What happens if you combine Groupon or Facebook with jet charter? You get Social Flights. Organise a group of friends or join an existing group to book a private jet at a lower price. Or at least, that's the theory. Fast Company wrote about them recently. The site today listed 22 flights with seats starting at $150 each. If they get enough trips and enough members to make it viable, it could be a great way to experience private aviation.


I am CEO at Articulate Marketing and Turbine. I fly a Cirrus SR22 and edit Golf Hotel Whiskey, a website for pilots. I write about wine at Vincarta Follow...