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Stretching out in her cream leather seat, Sam Carr watches the British countryside blur into the distance as her private jet soars into the sky.

En route to Cannes, she and her fellow passengers — an intimate gathering comprised only of her husband Alexander and five of their closest friends — sip Moet & Chandon champagne served to them by one of their two pilots.

Less than two hours later, they're landing at the small airport and being whisked off the runway  in a taxi without so much as a crowded luggage carousal or passport-control queue in sight.

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Sam Carr and his partner Alexander Dunn hired a private jet for Alexander's 50th birthday to take them and their friends to France, something that was cheaper per person than flying on easyJet

Katinka Nicou and her dog Roo aboard the private jet; the pair flew on an empty-leg flight from Britain to Sweden last week at a cost of £1,500 - £500 cheaper than the cost of doing so a commercial airline

Of course, for celebrities or billionaire oligarchs there's nothing unusual about this. But Sam is neither famous nor wealthy. She's a middle-class mother-of-three more accustomed to holidaying in Center Parcs than on the Cote d'Azur.

'It would never have crossed my mind that we'd ever be flying by private jet,' says Sam, 41. 'I had to pinch myself to believe it was happening.'

Nor had Sam, who works as an events organiser for a charity and her husband, a car sales executive, saved up for months in order to afford the luxury trip. For it cost them just £171 each — less than the £174 price of an easyJet ticket from London to Nice that week.

Like an increasing number of savvy Britons, they had bought what is described as an 'empty-leg' flight, which is the outward or return journey a jet will make to either pick up or drop off its full-fare- paying passengers.

Because it's a trip the plane has to make, regardless of whether it contains any passengers, tickets are offered at dramatically reduced prices — sometimes over 75 per cent off.

So, the flight from London to Cannes, which would ordinarily have cost more than £7,000, was available to Sam, Alexander and their friends for just £1,200, or £171 each.

Their French sojourn was the result of a dinner party conversation with two friends about what they should do to celebrate Alexander's 50th birthday. 'One, an aviation enthusiast, suggested we all book an empty-leg flight,' says Sam.

That evening, while searching online, they discovered the £1,200 offer on a state-of-the-art £3 million seven-seater Cessna Citation 1, leaving for Cannes that Saturday at 10am.

The couple roped in three more friends to share the cost with them and their dinner party guests — a stay-at-home mum, a dental nurse and a scientist.

Ms Nicou and Roo stop to pose for a picture in front of the jet; she described the trip as being 'wonderful'

'Booking the flight so quickly felt surreal,' says Sam, whose three children, William, 15, Louis, 13, and Cordelia, ten, were on holiday with their grandmother at Center Parcs at the time.

'When we told our friends and family, they thought we were incredibly jammy. My dad said we led a champagne lifestyle on a beer income.'

That Saturday, the couple took a taxi from their £600,000 Cambridge home to the private terminal at Luton Airport. 'We arrived at 9.30am and were taken through security in minutes,' says Sam.

'Our pilot introduced himself and we walked onto the jet. It was another world. I imagined this was what it must be like to be a film star. The inside of the jet was beautiful, with heavy wooden doors, thick carpets and huge leather seats facing each other. I'd never seen anything like it.

'Then one of our pilots opened a bottle of Moet for us and brought us fruit and croissants on a platter. We were all laughing at the madness of it all and pretending to be divas.'

It took an hour and 40 minutes to arrive in Cannes — a French town so exclusive there is no commercial airport and only private jets are authorised to land there.

'Our passports were checked by two policemen. Stepping onto the runway into the sunshine, we couldn't believe what had just happened,' says Sam.

Within 20 minutes, they were sitting in a restaurant on Cannes' famous seafront.

Later, the couple booked into a £76-a-night Ibis hotel and flew home with easyJet to Gatwick on Monday, which was a rude awakening. 'It was like a cattle market,' says Sam. 'If I could afford it I'd definitely fly by private jet again. It was an amazing experience.'

There's no reason why she shouldn't be able to — thanks to the latest technology, more empty-leg flights are available than ever before.

Online brokers list all the empty flights available on smartphone apps such as EmptyLegMark and PrivateFly, which means potential passengers can quickly find out if there's a bargain to be had.

Roo takes a look at the cockpit; Ms Nicou said taking her dog on a commercial plane would have not only been more expensive, but it would also have been 'traumatic' as Roo would of had to be put in a cage

And there are often spectacular deals available. Last month, for example, an eight-seater jet flying between London and Paris was available for £1,100, or £138 per head, the same as the price of a British Airways ticket. The normal hire price  of the jet would have been £3,200.

A nine-seater jet from London to Venice cost £3,250, or £361 per person, down from the full-fare price of £13,654 and a snip compared to the  equivalent £499 British Airways business class ticket — although a BA economy class ticket could be yours for a more reasonable £118.

Mehdi Dialmy, of PrivateFly, says his company sells around three such flights a week: 'Fifty per cent of our empty-leg passengers are ordinary families going on holiday or couples celebrating anniversaries or birthdays who want a little glamour.'

But it's not just the prestige that attracts customers, it's the convenience. With around 3,000 private airports in Europe — compared to just 300 for scheduled flights — travellers can land far closer to their destination, putting paid to endless airport transfers.

Passengers need only arrive half an hour before take off, and check-in takes a few minutes.

Although you have to walk through the same archway body scanner that conventional airports have, there is no queue. Passport and safety checks take a fraction of the time.

Once onboard, you'll probably be served food and drink by one of your two pilots, as jets with fewer than ten seats are too small for cabin crew. Meals are served on china plates with silver cutlery. And there's unlimited free champagne — even on empty leg flights — thanks to an open bar.

But there's another, more prosaic reason many people are opting to go private: you can take pets on board.

Empty-leg flights - trips a jet makes to pick-up or drop off full fare paying passengers - are sold at considerably cheaper prices; rates can be discounted by as much as 75 per cent

Related - Take a tour of a luxurious Bombardier private jet

While animals must travel in the hold on commerical airlines, private jet passengers can simply keep their pets on their knee. Even monkeys and reptiles are welcome.

Wanting to fly with her rottweiler, Roo, was the reason Katinka Nicou booked onto an empty-leg flight from Britain to Sweden last week.

'It would have cost me £1,500 to take Roo on a commercial flight, on top of my own flight and the cost of my luggage,' says business coach Katinka, 38, who was emigrating back to her native Stockholm after living in London for seven years.

'Roo would have had to have been put in a cage in the luggage compartment all day, which would have been traumatic. It all seemed so complicated and would have cost me a total of £2,000.'

She called an online private-jet-booking company, Victor, which found her a two-and-a-half hour empty leg flight from Biggin Hill airport, Kent, to a private terminal at Norrkoping airport, 90 minutes outside Stockholm, for £1,500.

'Getting a private plane to myself and having Roo in the cabin with me, for less money than I would have otherwise paid was wonderful,' says Katinka.

'The staff treated me wonderfully. Swedish staff picked up my rental car and had it waiting for me on the tarmac. Within five minutes of landing, the car was loaded and I was on my way home.'

She is now converted to private jet travel. 'I'm an ordinary person who loves a good deal,' she says.

'The prices may look intimidating, but if you look at sharing a route with other people it makes sense.'

Of course, there are catches. The major one being that your trip could be re-arranged or cancelled at any moment, if the primary passenger paying full price for the other leg changes their schedule.

Paul Richardson, of plane-chartering company Air Partner, also urges passengers to check their jet is insured and legally approved for charter work. If not, travellers are unlikely to be covered in the event of cancellations, lost baggage or even a crash.

He also utters a word of warning to those hoping to sample the celebrity lifestyle on  the cheap.

'Don't think every provider is going to give you the star treatment,' he adds.

Indeed, while most jets come fully equipped with luxurious furnishings, some very small planes don't even have a proper bathroom — which can prove embarrassing.

The Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350i, for example, has seats for nine — eight arranged in two groups of four, plus a ninth on the cushion-covered toilet, which is open to the rest of the cabin until it is required.

A 'modesty' curtain is pulled around the makeshift toilet, should any passengers need to use it.

Such embarrassments aside,  private jet flights have never been more popular.

Retired grandfather Alan Wood, 66, has been an empty-leg devotee since he and wife Pauline, 50, moved from Danbury, Essex, to Majorca five years ago.

'In winter, flight schedules are sparse and you're restricted,' he says. 'British Airways only fly two or three times a week.'

So he regularly flies his family of four — including son Alexander,  18, and daughter Harrie, 16 — on empty-leg flights from the private terminal at Palma airport to Biggin Hill to see family back in Britain.

'It's still slightly more expensive than commercial flights,' says Alan, a former managing director of a logistics company.

'But not that much more after you take into account the extra baggage charges scheduled airlines load passengers with.

Alan is sent an ongoing schedule of empty legs that he books from several times a year.

'I book around five days in advance,' he says. His six-bedroom home in the south- west of the island is only a 20-minute drive from the airport.

'The crew call when the aircraft has arrived and within half an hour we're on the plane,' he says.
They usually fly on a six-seater Cessna Citation jet.

Despite his impressive flying style, Alan is at pains to point out he is not made of money: 'I live off a  company pension. I don't have enormous wealth.'

Nowadays, it seems, that need not be an impediment to travelling in style.