17. Are private jet empty-leg flights reliable enough for business travel?

Use an empty leg only when you can accept its particular dependencies or have a viable alternative. Air Charter Service describes empty legs as aircraft movements arising after or between other missions; Aircraft Charter’s published terms expressly make certain empty legs conditional on the underlying charter operating. (aircharterservice.com)

Before booking, ask:

1. What other flight creates this empty leg?
2. What changes allow the seller to alter or cancel it?
3. Is the remedy a refund, credit or replacement?
4. Who pays any replacement-price difference?
5. How much notice might you receive?
6. Can your party use a different airport or travel time?

Our recommended decision rule is simple: do not make a fixed deadline dependent on an empty leg unless the alternative remains operationally and financially acceptable.

Compare two budgets:

• Flight operates: empty-leg price plus the remaining journey costs.
• Flight disappears: contractually applicable refund or credit, alternative travel expenditure and any duplicate commitments.

Do not attach an invented cancellation probability to the calculation. If reliable data are unavailable, show the scenarios without pretending to know their likelihood.