On Thursday I flew WDH-JNB on a CRJ200 and we were 3 pax.

What's the lowest load you have been part of?

3 pax Belavia CRJ-200 EW-303PJ Minsk to Vilnius

3 pax North Flying (opf Avies) Metro OY-NPF Tallinn to Kärdla

5 pax Alitalia CityLiner Embraer 190 EI-RNA Frankfurt to Milan Linate on Christmas eve.

In 2009, Airliners.net member PlymSpotter and myself flew from NQY to PLH on an Air Southwest Dash 8. We were the only passengers.

Soren   

SDF-STL on a TW DC-9-30 sometime in the late '80s. 2 Pax + 3 F/As working the flight.

On an Eastern Airways Jetstream 41 last November doing some domestic hops in France:

DIJ-TLS : 5pax + 1 F/A
TLS-BOD : 3pax + 1 F/A

The aircraft can hold 29 people. Eastern stopped the service out of Dijon a few months ago, I'm glad I got to experience the unique service while it was around!

2 pax (me and a friend) on a Fokker 50 GOT-SDL with HS Direktflyg.


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Photo © Axel Bjoerk

With more crew than pax it was a private jet, kind of.

I know not quite the same but I l flew on an American MD11 JFK-LHR on thanks giving day in 1995
with only 23 people on board which was rather pleasant. In 2006 I took an Alaskan MD80 ANC-FAI with 7 pob
and I also flew a Delta 763 LHR-BOS this year with 40 on.
Cheers

Kev

SAn Luis obispo-SFO. I was one of 4 people. Two of us were non revs. All the nonstop LAX-SFO flights were full, so we took a detour and had dinner in a town that we had never heard of.

I was the only passenger on a Southwest 737-700 flight from BWI-EWR several years ago. The F/A in the aft galley came forward to tell me it was a record for him as well - his previous low was 6 pax! Being Southwest, it was actually kinda awkward deciding where to sit. And you better bet I paid attention to the safety briefing!

Before that, my record low was 2 - myself and another pax - on a USAirways (Piedmont) DHC-8 from LGA-MHT back in 2002.

I was on a flight SZG-VIE a few weeks ago with 10 people in a Q400.

I have been on an OS 763 VIE-IAD with 70 people. Needless to say, it was pretty comfortable.

Quoting Birdwatching (Reply 2): PlymSpotter

I remember him mentioning his story being the only passenger on a BMI Baby flight Spain to CWL.

Quoting Birdwatching (Reply 2): In 2009, Airliners.net member PlymSpotter and myself flew from NQY to PLH on an Air Southwest Dash 8. We were the only passengers.

I remember that well. Full flight to NQY, then everybody but us got off for the hop on to PLH - great fun!

Quoting LOWS (Reply 9): I remember him mentioning his story being the only passenger on a BMI Baby flight Spain to CWL.

Yes, I was the only passenger. I did a trip report on it as it was quite unusual:

https://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...ums/trip_reports/read.main/190967/


Dan  

I flew DFW to CCS back in 2001, just one month after 9-11.

There were 22 people on board the American Airlines B757-200.

IAD-SYR on USX, 2 pax on B-1900
SYR-PHL on USX, less than 10 pax multiple times on DH-8
ROC-SYR on USX, 2 pax on DH-8
SYR-ROC on DL, 5 pax on 727-200
MCO-BWI on WN, 8 pax on 737
MCO-DEN on UA, less than 30 pax on 727-200
PHL-MUC on US, less than 50 pax on 767-200

That's all I can remember right now. I feel like the PA 747 SYD-LAX was light, but don't remember the details. Same for a couple of ADL-ASP and ASP-DRW and return flights.

A 9W ATR-72 flying BOM-BLR in 2000. Under 8 passengers, and I was related to two of them. They still had a full meal service then, and I remember the F/As coming around for seconds...and thirds...and fourths. So many veggie puffs were had.

I flew on a United Airlines 777 from FRA-IAD in March of 2013 with about 40'ish people on board. I was going to ask about the potential for an upgrade, however, having the entire last 4 rows of the plane (both sides) to myself enticed me to stay. It was nice laying out across the rows and doing my own thing for 8+ hours.

13 of us on an AA MD-82 flying MSP-DFW in January 2012. They seated us all in F and gave us the requisite service, which was only the second-best part. The first was the takeoff--short and very sweet. If you haven't read my trip report, shame on you.

January 3rd, 2014--Delta flight 1925. MD-90 ATL-BWI that departed at 7:25AM. There were about 30 pax on board. On top of getting my own row of three seats to myself, the pilot performed at catapault takeoff!!

June 29th, 2013--US Airways a319 (Star Alliance-702UW) CLT-MYR leaving CLT around 8:30pm. I was one of about 20 people onboard.

My dad was on a US Airways flight a couple of months ago from DCA to CHS. The E-170 had a grand total of 11 passengers onboard!

Hm...

Recently I decided to give Etihad Regional a try. We were 4 Pax on the Saab 2000 ZRH-GVA. They seem to do really well  

Back in 2006 I flew Condor DXB-FRA. In DXB an astounding 17 Pax boarded the 767 which took us to SKG where a load of people returning from a cruise stormed the plane, leading to a full house on SKG-FRA. However, with all of the DXB Pax moved to the Premium Cabin the second leg was quiet enjoyable as well

Hi all,
British Airways daytime flight Narita to London on a 747-400... 18 passengers. Why? It was December 25! My connecting flight Sydney to Narita which departed around 10pm on December 24 on a Qantas 747 only had 23 passengers. Pretty wild! Qantas FAs were amazing and let us sit anywhere. They were absolutely charming and very very attentive, addressing us by name. The BA FAs however, disappeared to the upper deck and weren't seen for a majority if the flight. They were slow to respond to calls and were a bit surly when serving the meals. BA did give us special Christmas food however which was nice, and upon arrival at LHR, we were in the car about 25 mins after docking...

Had 15 pax RDU-MCO in April on a WN 737-700

Dec 24th 1988 ski charter MUC-BHX - my family of 4 were the only booked pax - the bus took us out to the a/c and I just about had a Beatlemania moment when I saw we'd be on a Scibe Airlift B707-320 acmi-ed by the tour operator!

Cabin crew of 5 and flight deck of 3 meant we were outnumbered 2 to 1 by the crew - we sat in First class of course (ski charter ?!) and logged my one and only 707   

DUB-KIR on FR in 2009 - 7 Pax in a 737-800.

I also have a video of one my quietest flight on a wide body UA 896 SIN-HKG. Around 30 people in Y (First and Business were full).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlFEeNf6j-0

Not one I flew but I gated a flight AKL-NGO with 2J/5Y on a 763. I invited them each by name.

Flew Vancouver/Richmond to Nanaimo on a "Private" Beaver.
Other than that I flew an EK388 with a load of 30%

A few weeks ago I flew Tropic Air (a Cessna Caravan) from Placencia to San Ignacio....it was just me and the pilot!

I've also been one of 5 pax on a Shanghai Airlines B737-800 SHA-KWE and one of 4 pax UNI Air (Taiwan) Dash TSA-HCN. I wrote a report about that one:
Taiwan Adventure: EVA Air, UNI Airways, Daily Air (by Gabrielchew Jun 28 2009 in Trip Reports)

Not quite the same thing, but I've been the only passengers in premium cabins a few times:
- CZ A330 LHR-CAN and AKL-CAN both in F
- BA 737 LVI-JNB in J

I did a BWI-ROA flight on a US 732 with about 6 people on it (not including crew).

I also did a IAD-CCS-EZE flight with two other passengers but that was on a G-IV and not Sched 121 flight....... I preferred that flight.

Several times on the LGA-DCA shuttles on early to mid afternoon, mid-week flights, in the 1980's - 1990's, maybe 12 pax or so plus f/a's.

my parents and sister on a DM Fokker 50, ODE to CPH. the route ended a few years later when they opened a bridge and the trip cpuld be don in little over 1 hour by car.

I was on a cape air flight this May from PVD to Block Island where my mother and I were the only passengers. I sat in the copilots seat!

I was on a QX Dash 8-400, flying SEA-BOI last september with a load of 10 people. They normally hold 70 something (I can't remember right now). The F/As had to move us around to balance the plane.

I flew QF LAX-JFK in 2008 and there were 15 of us on that 744. 8 were in J. It was like flying on a private jet I had so much room around me. Boy that baby took off in no time. I never thought we would get off the ground leaving SYD. Leaving LAX was like they shot us off a catapult.
Pat

Was on a UA 744 from SFO to ORD with about 15 pax. Was supposed to be my first 744 flight.

Was one of four passengers on a NW Airlink E-120

Was one of about 30 aboard a BA 772 from EWR to LHR. The flight back was packed.

Was one of about 10 aboard a NW A320 from SFO to DTW (red eye).

A NW DC-10 with about 30 pax from DTW to SFO.

The most empty flight I've been on was a Winair Twin Otter SBH-SXM with only 2 pax.

Besides that I've had my fair share of positioning flights where I wasn't part of the crew, but working non the less. Longest one was AMS-NDJ on a 767.

4 passengers on a Kuwait Airways 742, December 1990

I was working at the Victoria Club in London, 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, I had no idea about the invasion of Kuwait and bought the ticket because it was cheap.

The FA's let us sit anywhere on the plane, except in first, because there was one passenger who bought a ticket.

Great flight, we had a fighter escort out of LHR and into JFK.

I'm amazed at the numbers of the earlier posters. Lots of single digits and on mainline aircraft.

My personal record is 12. It was on an Air Wisconsin (US Airways Express) CRJ-200 flying ITH-PHL on October 31 a few years ago. Halloween and a Monday night probably had a lot to do with that.

It seems that just about every flight I take is nearly full, however, last year I took an OZ A321 from CEB-ICN with probably less than 40 pax. I had the entire exit row to myself.  

When I was a kid, I was flying alone on a DC-10 going EWR-OAK that had an engine problem on takeoff. United put me and the one other kid who was flying alone on the next flight out, in first class. We were the only people in first class. We had the run of the cabin, these two little kids (we were both 8 years old). They had card tables and swivel chairs in those days so it was like our own little playground. I saw the coach cabin too and I remember seeing only about 10 other people on the whole flight - in a DC-10.

That's the lightest load I can remember. Nothing comes close recently.

Not exactly the same, but there was me and one other guy in the F cabin of a CX 747 SFO-HKG back in 2010. There is a trip report...

Cheers,
Cameron

3 revenue passengers in Coach, and 10 non revs in First on the DL Shuttle LGA-BOS on NYE's a few years ago.

Back in the mid 90's I was on Virgin Atlantic MCO-LGW in J, I was the only passenger. Had three cabin crew to my own, who took it in turns to serve drinks and dinner. Wonderful to have the whole nose section of a 747 to yourself.
Big old purple armchair seats in those days. 

Quoting DocLightning (Reply 30): Was on a UA 744 from SFO to ORD with about 15 pax. Was supposed to be my first 744 flight.

Sorry, was supposed to be my first 777 flight, but there was a last minute equipment change. It was the first and only time I was ever disappointed to see a 744 on the stand.

That was also the most memorable takeoff. We were actually using SFO's 19s to take off. We used 19R. For noise reasons, I guess SOP is to climb as fast as possible and then turn hard. Captain warned us we'd be doing a max-blast takeoff and that we'd feel some significant acceleration.

It's truly awesome when a machine the size of a small office building throws you back in your seat that hard. The takeoff roll didn't last 30 seconds and we leapt into the sky like a homesick angel followed by a gut-wrenching right turn (which we'd also been warned about). Usually the 744 has a stately, slow takeoff because it's either heavily loaded or on flex power. But this was one heck of a takeoff!

It would be another two years before I got my first 777 ride. Interestingly, I think I've only racked up five lifetime 777 legs. One UA, four BA.

If non-commercial flights count, I was on an Intel corporate shuttle flight back in January with I think maybe 5 passengers on it. This was after a lengthy delay, and most people decided to just cancel their trips and go back to the office. As it turns out, those people made the right decision. As this was a Friday morning, most people (myself included) were making a day trip up to Oregon. The flight was supposed to be MHR-HIO, but I never actually made it there. After being delayed due to conditions at HIO, we were finally told that while HIO was still fogged in, they were going to try for PDX and bus us over there. So the few of us who decided to wait it out boarded the ERJ-145. When we got closer to PDX we were told the visibility there was still below their minimums as well (No Cat III approaches for them, apparently). So we were in a holding pattern for a while and then diverted to RDM. After we landed two other Intel shuttle aircraft diverted there as well, one from SJC and one from AZA. The combined passengers from all three flights hung out in the FBO while some of the pilots went over to Subway and bought lunch for everyone, as by then it was around noon. After much discussion and confusion about what was going to happen, it was finally decided that (probably for positioning purposes), one of the planes would return to SJC and one would fly to HIO (by this point it was afternoon and the fog had all burned off) and we were welcome to go with them on either flight. I figured at that point by the time I got to HIO and from there to the office I would barely have time to do anything before it was time to go home, so I called reservations and asked for a seat on the SJC-MHR shuttle and got on the plane headed for SJC. By the time I got back to MHR and from there to the office it was after 5:00, an entire workday gone.

Now for commercial flights, I can't recall any that had an extremely low load. A Qantas redeye from DRW to SYD comes to mind as possibly the lowest, maybe a 50% load factor on a 738. I managed to get a section of 3 seats to myself, curl up with 3 pillows, and actually get some decent sleep on that flight.

September 22, 2001, JFK-BGI (I think; it might have been PHL-BGI, but I'm pretty sure it was JFK in 2001). There were 4 of us up front (upgraded) and maybe 9 or 10 in back, so let's say 15 total. Aircraft was an A319.

I don't believe I've been on any single-digit flights. Alas.

Quoting PITingres (Reply 41): September 22, 2001, JFK-BGI (I think; it might have been PHL-BGI, but I'm pretty sure it was JFK in 2001). There were 4 of us up front (upgraded) and maybe 9 or 10 in back, so let's say 15 total. Aircraft was an A319.

If it was an a319 then it was most likely PHL.  

In 2003, I did TPA-CLT on a 757 with 6 other pax, a couple years ago I did TPA-FLL on WN with 3 others. The flight back was packed...

DL CVG-BDL B752 4F 10Y
Was a Saturday morning flight back in July of 2002/2003. . Bags came out on the carousel at BDL all at once and stopped. Woman in flight (she was in F) exclaimed loudly "That's all?" and I as a snarky teenager replied, "That's all."

DL Connection JFK-YUL E145 8Y
Last year, day before Thanksgiving. Was spending the holiday touring Montreal with family, probably was DL's lightest load flight that day out of JFK as not many are taking trips to Canada for Thanksgiving.

In January 2002 I flew on a US Airways A330 from PHL to LGW with 16 pax. I had the entire rear economy section to myself!

I flew DAL-IAH with 17 pax on an Emb -135.

I was the only passenger on a DC-9 in 1992. The onboard service was outstanding!  

DL L1011 with 5 people from MIA to MCO.

I forgot to mention there was one relatively recent flight - a JAL connecting flight going NRT-ITM on a 777-300ER(!) They used this as basically a positioning flight that carries whatever passengers it can. I saw about 15 people on it. There was only one person in the PE section, and only a few people in our economy cabin. I saw one or two in the economy cabin ahead of us.

This was a surreal flight. I'd just gotten off a 14 hour 747-400 flight sitting just behind the engines, so my head was swimming. This was my first 777 flight and it was an extremely light load in both passengers and fuel as well as a very short flight, so it took off like a rocket and never seemed to stabilize. It felt like being in a car with too much horsepower and not enough weight trying to deal with stop and go traffic.