The Most Empty Flight You Have Been On!

alespesl · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:15 am

I am just wondering what was the flight you have been on recently that had only few passengers or hardly any.
Mine was from YTZ (Toronto City Centre) -YOW (Ottawa) on Air Canada Jazz (Dash 8). Including myself, 5 people, plus F/A and pilots. We could eat and drink all the snacks as we pleased. How about you. Please try to include airline, flight, how many people onboard.

This was the plane I have flown that day:

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Photo © Richard Barsby

[Edited 2004-01-21 16:17:33]

DodgeCharger · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:18 am

At CLL where I work afternoon flights to IAH are always near empty or empty.

XAAAM · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:39 am

I flew on a CO MD-80 from EWR to IAH early 1995, maybe 20 people on the plane, and an Aeromexico MD-87 from MEX to DFW on September 19, 2001 same amount of passengers.

b727 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:41 am

I flew on a Delta Express (737) flight from MCO to SYR about 6 years ago, as I remember the plane had 5 passengers aboard. It was a peaceful flight.

B727
Glenn

Guest · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:44 am

I used to fly on America West from CMH to IND on a fairly regular basis. On a couple of flights there were less than 5 passengers. The cabin crew put us all in the Airbus' first class cabin so that they could keep a better eye on us.

grrtvc · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:45 am

Once flew on a NW DC9 from DCA to DTW with about 10 people. Total with crew was something like 15. They put everybody in F class.

Not sure if this would be considered a revenue flight, but I also flew on a reposition, I was the only person besides the 2 pilots and 3 attendents.

aa777flyer · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:48 am

I was on an American Airlines MD11 SJCDFW in 1995. I was the only passenger!

sky0000547 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:49 am

All the flights I have ever been on were mostly full! I am still dreaming of having a whole row of seats to myself. Smile

DIA · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:49 am

DEN-PHX on an AWA A320 (brand new), back in the late 1990's, I think we had twenty pax. . .I upgraded to first class. . .chated most the time with the FA about her recent trip to South Africa on SAA. That was one swift t/o!

daumueller · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:51 am

I travelled within Malaysia 2 years ago... on the TwinOtter Flight from Miri to Mulu, there were 3 people on board... The Pilot, the Co-Pilot and me .)

La Carlota · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:55 am

DXB-AMM -- Oct. 7, 1990 -- Emirates Airlines. During the Kuwait-Iraq crisis, no one seemed to want to fly the route. We were 9 passengers in a B-727.

ZAG-AMS -- Aug. 31, 1993 -- Croatia Airlines. The war in Bosnia was at one of its fiercest moments, and there was not much demand for the flight. Only 4 passengers in a B-737/200.

LGA-ATL -- Oct. 6, 2001 -- Delta Air Lines. It was a Sat. evening. I took advantage of the 10,000 mile award for flights to NY in the wake of 9-11. 10 passengers in a MD-88. We were all invited to seat in First Class and also had such treatment...

macmac76 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:55 am

Sept. 17, 2001, 6 days after 9/11, I flew from SFO-IAH on a 757-200. Left SFO at 3:30pm with only 24 passengers including myself and this was the domestic version of the 752. The flight attendants gave us as much food and drinks as we wanted!

Sabena332 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:57 am

A few days ago, fellow a.net member TriStar500 and I flew from CDG to DUS on an Air France A 320, including us were 12 passengers on board.

This is the perfect thread to post another shameless plug Big thumbs up

, click here to read our trip report.

Patrick

Thomas_Jaeger · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:57 am

ZRH-BRU, Helvetic Fokker 100, January 12, 2004: 2PAX

StevenUhl777 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:58 am

February 1990.

SFO-SMF, UA 727-200. Only 5 of us in first class (3 of which my were my family) and one other. MAYBE 5-6 people in coach. I don't think it was more than a 30 minute flight.

cfm-56 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:00 am

I was on a flight from Vaasa to Helsinki in May 2002, a 35 minute flight operated by a MD-82,it was a monday afternoon flight and we were 3 people onboard plus crew! We had first class service,unfortunately only coffee and juice!

azo · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:00 am

July 4, 1995, LGA-DTW on an NW DC9-30. I don't remember the flight number, but it was in the morning around 7 or 730. I think including my family of 4, there were about 10-12 other people on the flight.

In March of 2001 I also flew an NW DC9-30 DTW-AZO with about 15 other people on board.

U2RGUY · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:00 am

On a UA 763 from SFO-LHR on Christmas Eve in 1996 with 23 pax

Tom in NO · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:02 am

It's between these two:
CO 727-200 between MIA and FLL in 1982
Air Cal 737-200 between ONT and SFO in 1986

No more than 10 pax on either one.

Tom at MSY

727datacenter · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:02 am

Hi Guys,

The most empty flight I took was between MIA-GRU in December 31, 2000. Only 17 people, including crew in a 777-200! We also depart minutes before midnight and we saw the fireworks from Florida sky, drinking champagne (United Airlines courtesy). It was amazing!

Regards from Brazil,

Sergio

COEWR · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:05 am

I flew from MCO to EWR on September 11, 2002. There were about 10-12 passengers on a 739. They asked everyone to move as far forward as possible...You know what that means! First class for the price of coach!

Homeroid · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:06 am

Dec. 24, 1988

Eastern Airlines A300 LAX-SFO 6 passengers....

JOSEMEX · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:08 am

VS LGW-EWR circa 1996. A 742, and I counted about 30 in coach. In the rear coach section we were sitting one per row, and even so some rows were empty.

ATAManIndy · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:10 am

Can't recall the flight number or destination, but do remember dispatching an AA flight from ORD after a long day and some weather that had not a single pax onboard. Had to get the a/c and crew to the downline for the following day, so it went empty.

MSYtristar · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:10 am

MSY-CVG, June 1995
Delta Airlines
MD-88

10 passengers total, including my family of 4.

Steve/NOL

MerC · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:12 am

Well, all flights I have taken have been full or almost full.

planemannyc · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:16 am

DAC-ZYL in 1982 on Biman. Fokker F27. 44 seats. There were 4 passengers.

Funny how inefficient (and corrupt) the airlines was even back then. When my mother and I went to the Biman office, they said a board said no tickets available on the DAC-ZYL flight for the next 10 days. My dad worked for the government, and he had arranged for us to pick up these hard-to-find tickets. However, to our surprise, there were 38 empty seats on our flight. I guess the Biman employees were willing to give seats to sold-out flights for a small bribe. Alas, things have hardly changed.

debonair · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:17 am

Lets see:

1. LTU B767-300ER from ATH-MUC in 1998 ca. 20pax
2. Orinet Thai B747-100 BKK-Puhket August 2003 14pax
3. V-Bird A320-200 MUC-NRN November 2003 ca. 20pax

I remember also nearly empy loads on TransAer A300 ca. 20pax in 2000,
but I lost the route... getting old!

UTA_flyinghigh · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:18 am

Can you spell the WHOLE of C class to myself Wow!

:

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Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © William Ronciere

View Large View Medium
Click here for bigger photo!

Photo © William Ronciere

UTA

EIDW · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:21 am

HKG-AMS a few years ago on a KLM 747-400 Combi. Flight was only 1/3 full of PAX. I had three seats to myself. Was upset that I wasn't in the centre section as several people there had all 5 seats !

EIDW.

electraBob · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:22 am

This goes way back to 1973. Northwest Airlines B-727 from Grand Forks to Minneapolis with a stop in Fargo. The only time I entered an aircraft via the rear stairs. 2 people on the flight from GFK-FAR---actually had our coffee and sweet roll on the ground in GFK. Portion from FAR to MSP was oversold.

Devil505x · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:24 am

AVP - PHL on USAirways (ERJ or CRJ) @ about 8pm (time usually changes)there are never more than 3-4 people on this flight. Out of the 6 days it flies I would say a total of 12 people fly.
I wonder about this math
6 days x 50 seats = 300 seats only 12 get filled all week so 288 are empty!

ANX4fishing · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:28 am

SFO-JFK, AA 767 with perhaps 20 people i coach. Plane was virtually empty.

ushermittwoch · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:29 am

Last year, April 6th, I flew from CRW to IAD on a Jetsream 41 with 4 other people. The F/A had to distribute us evenly in the plane.
I got to sit up front.
Big thumbs up

B4REAL · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:31 am

May 2003, GRR-CVG Comair (DL Connection), last flight of the night. 5 people - Captain, First Officer, Flight Attendant, Passenger A, Passenger B (Me)!

IflyORL · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:34 am

Two nights ago on UA933 from IAD to MCO an A320 had 20 people in Coach. Great flight!

sebwhite · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:35 am

BOS-PQI, 2 passengers, US Express BE1900
ROC-BOS, 10 passengers, US 737-400
ROC-PHL, 7 passengers, A319, September 11 2002

SWAFA30 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:40 am

As a flight attendant, the fewest number of passengers I have had on a revenue flight is 2. It was the last flight of the night from BWI to PVD on a 137 seat 733 and we were about 2 hours late. All of the other passengers had been rebooked on earlier flights. I can't tell you how ridiculous it feels to do your pre-departure emergency briefing for a whopping 2 passengers, neither of whom is paying you the slightest bit of attention. There is something eerie about walking through an almost completely empty aircraft in midflight...especially at night.

[Edited 2004-01-21 17:46:23]

CO2BGR · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:41 am

BGR-ALB On the out bound leg there were 4 and on the inbound there were 3 on Commut air B1900s One was me, one was dad. It was quite empty. I flew out there to visit RPI on my college visits in May of 2003.

Guest · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:49 am

4/37 on a DH8 PHL-CHO this past summer. Coming home for winter break I went standby for United 189 IAD-SFO, a 752... I didn't clear until about 10 minutes before departure, which pissed me off because once I got on board, it became clear that first class and coach each had 24 people - i.e. there were about 130 open seats =P

VIAF · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:49 am

LHR-ZRH Boeing 757 (22.30 local time) no more than 10 peoples!!!

BMAbound · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:51 am

It was me along wit 5 other people on a SAAB 340, flying SDL - GOT on Jan 2nd 2002.

I actually have a pretty funny story related to this subject. My grandfather used to fly from Gothenburg to Madrid quite frequently in the 70's. Once, he got to fly down there on a DC-10 that would pick up some tourists, being the only passenger of course. When he arrived at the airport, he took a look at the Dep./Arr. screens only to find his name on there instead of the destination!

johan

dtwclipper · Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:54 am

Back in the early 80's from SAV to RDU on New York Air.

DC-9 30, 110 seats, 3 F/A's, 2 Flight Crew, 1 Pax.

Capital146 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:00 am

I flew last week on Bmibaby on GVA-MAN and there were just 33 passengers on a 148-seat 733. Not very good for a LCC which relies on high load factors to make money.

Although not on the aircraft myself, I have known a few Eastern Airways J41's leave with only 3 or 4 passengers on occasions and will always remember a J32 leave EMPTY on a scheduled flight to Teesside. The flight wasn't cancelled as it was needed on the return flight which did have some people booked on it.

yegbey01 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:07 am

Back in 99,
YEG-MSP on NW DC9

Only 6 people in the main cabin. First was full!!

aviationmaster · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:10 am

2 years ago on LH from Mexico City to Frankfurt. The B747-400 was 1/4 full. Had a whole row for myself Big grin

WiLdmanVzla · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:10 am

A lot of time ago... Aeropostal' domestic flight between BLA (Barcelona, Venezuela) & CCS, a DC9-50... only 5 pax (including me!!!!!)

*******

boac707 · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:10 am

Many moons ago....mid 80's, I went from LAX to SEA on a Delta 767 that had 12 passengers total. It was a late night flight and the crew explained that it was a positioning flight....

aloha73g · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:18 am

Back in 1988 my family was in San Francisco flying to Las Vegas on USAir. A UA flight from Hawai'i (with more of my family on it) was delayed. Turned out Everyone on our US flight was coming from the UA flight so it was my 5 family members plus 2 businessmen in First on this 737. My Dad videotaped it so I can 'remember' it eventhough I was only 5 at the time. The F/A's gave me and my sister a HUGE bucket of candy to take with us.

Aloha!

hailstone · Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:19 am

in the 70's with my mom on a new years' day 0710 LH111 CDG-FRA:

flight attendant went 'good morning ladies and gentlemen, errrrr....' looks into the cabin and goes on 'good morning lady, good morning young man'........

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