Empty leg
An empty leg is a flight an aircraft has to make anyway with nobody on board, usually to return to base or reposition for its next paying customer. Operators sell these sectors at a discount, often 25–75% below a normal one-way quote, because any revenue beats flying empty. The catch is flexibility: the date, route and aircraft are fixed by someone else's trip, and if the original booking changes or cancels, your empty leg can vanish with little notice. Treat empty legs as a bargain for travellers with loose plans and a fallback option, not as a dependable way to make a fixed meeting or a wedding.