Did you know thousands of business jets are flying on emptywith full tanks of fuel?

Empty seats, that is!

That’s a substantial amount of private charter flights arebooked one way. Other times, an aircraft will fly empty to pick uppassengers.  With an estimated 3.4million flights in 2009 crisscrossing or even leaving the country, thepotential for an empty cabin—known as empty legs—is tremendous.

By now, you must be thinking aircraft owners must hate emptylegs. You’re right. They make flying more expensive, waste fuel and take awayfrom recovering the cost of owning an aircraft. With rising fuel prices emptylegs can make some trips profitless and impractical.

Without someone willing to buy the aircraft’s return trip,what’s an owner to do?

Wait.

That’s right. They hang out at the destination—sometimes fordays. They, in this case, are the flight crew. Paying the flight crew to go todinner and lounge at the hotel is expensive, but not as expensive as an emptycabin at 30,000 feet.

In the past, an airplane would fly passengers to theirdestination, refuel and return.  That’snow history. With today’s soft private air market and rising fuel costs, ownerswill bend backwards to find and accommodate a customer to pay for the rideback.

That could mean modifying the return trip, say to a nearbydestination, so that at least some of the trip is compensated. Or, potentialtravelers may be offered a deep discount, sometimes up to 50 percent off theusual fixed fare.

Empty or not, the aircraft must eventually return to itsbase to fly other trips. So there’s lot of incentive to negotiate.

By now, you must be asking “So how do I take advantage ofthis?”

With all the waiting and dealing going on, the data base ofempty legs is larger than ever, but there’s just one portal to accesses thisinformation. That portal is on the Magellan Jets Web site. Go to the Web site,scroll to the bottom, click View Empty Legs and be prepared to be overwhelmed.Magellan Jets has the industry’s exclusive software designed to search anddisplay empty legs.

The site displays hundreds of empty legs going to some ofthe most popular destinations—Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Boca Raton andNantucket—and featuring every aircraft from Beech Barons to Gulfstreams. Youcan search for trips by location and date, both domestically and overseas. Whenyou locate a leg that suits your needs, complete the request form and submitit. A Magellan flight specialist will assist you with the details and pricing.

The whole transaction from the time the customer requests anempty leg to any negotiations and special requests takes just a few minutes, accordingto Anthony Tivan, Magellan Jets president.

Magellan Jets will even auction some of the most popularroutes and destinations for its members—but not on the courthouse steps.  Magellan Jets takes routes with fixed costsand allows charter companies, owners and flight departments with Part 135certificates to bid for your business, sort of like several banks competing foryour mortgage with ever better rates and points. That drives up competition anddrives down prices, so members benefit by saving thousands of dollars.

Everybody wins. The traveler saves a bundle. The aircraft operator avoids a loss and Magellan Jets makes a sale.