Lithuanian man was the only passenger on a flight to Italy

[AisleSeat]

Skirmantas Strimaitis, who was flying from Vilnius (VNO) to Bergamo (BGY) for a skiing trip on March 16, was in for a shock when he discovered he had the entire Boeing 737-800 to himself.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/this-man-was-the-only-passenger-on-a-boeing-737-to-italy/index.html

 

[UP4014]

Funny. I've been on a QF 737 flight with only 4 other people.

 

[Cossie]

I had a flight in China on a newish 737 that was going from Kunming to Guilin, there was myself and my then partner, and there were very fewothers on the flight, maybe 5 or 6, apart from crew.

 

[JohnK]

From memory only 4-5 other people on an AYQ-PER flight quite a few years ago.

 

[ozfflyer]

all these are incredible examples of very VERY poor planning. With enough notice, many tour operators would take on empty aircraft & package them up. It reflects very badly on an airline to have any near empty flights.

On the point of packaging, many airlines seem to have lost the plot lately & it's a race to the bottom, will start a new thread now

airfares, race to bottom or package ?

 

[serfty]

all these are incredible examples of very VERY poor planning. With enough notice, many tour operators would take on empty aircraft & package them up. It reflects very badly on an airline to have any near empty flights.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

The aircraft may come back chockers ...

 

[dajop]

all these are incredible examples of very VERY poor planning. With enough notice, many tour operators would take on empty aircraft & package them up. It reflects very badly on an airline to have any near empty flights.

On the point of packaging, many airlines seem to have lost the plot lately & it's a race to the bottom, will start a new thread now

airfares, race to bottom or package ?

Did you read the linked articles for the original post? The aircraft was a one way charter flight. One assumes the charter was enough to cover the cost of returning the aircraft to base, but they decided to sell tickets to generate a bit of extra revenue.

I’ve been on EK 380 where nearly everyone in economy has had three or four seats to themselves, but J was quite full and the return sector showing 0 in every class except F. It’s not for me to judge if the airline has made a sound decision to operate the aircraft or not.

 

[Cossie]

Did a charter flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney via Melbourne a long time a go. It was a nearly empty 747 from KL to Melbourne, about a dozen passengers, a lot of people got on in Melbourne and I remember being told it would be 100% full when it left Sydney to go back to KL. Probably still got the ticket somewhere, it was bought through STA in London.

 

[Lynda2475]

Once flew on UA from ORD to MSY and there were only 8 passengers onboard a jet (cant remember what type) which could have easily seated 150+, guess they needed the flight to go ahead for positioning reasons.

 

[drron]

On 29/12/1969 I travelled on a Fiji Airways HS748 from HIR-POM.I was the only passenger.2FAs.It was my birthday so one of the FAs went up and had a chat to the Captain.He sent back the flight engineer to tell me it was an open bar for the duration.
At POM they were expecting the Australian GG.As I emerged from the plane and started down the stairs with an FA on each side the band began playing God Save the Queen.Took them a couple of minutes to figure out I wasn't the GG.

 

[Blinky]

On a return VA flight home from Bali, I was delighted to get a J upgrade for a lowball bid.......until I discovered there were only 10 other pax, all having a row to themselves and a more comfortable sleep.

 

[ozfflyer]

Maybe yes, maybe no.

The aircraft may come back chockers ...

yes of course the flight back was full, but that's got nothing to do with the poor planning, by the charterer.

Did you read the linked articles for the original post? The aircraft was a one way charter flight. One assumes the charter was enough to cover the cost of returning the aircraft to base, but they decided to sell tickets to generate a bit of extra revenue.

I’ve been on EK 380 where nearly everyone in economy has had three or four seats to themselves, but J was quite full and the return sector showing 0 in every class except F. It’s not for me to judge if the airline has made a sound decision to operate the aircraft or not.

the flight was a return charter. Nothing to do with the airline in this case, it was the tour operator.

On 29/12/1969 I travelled on a Fiji Airways HS748 from HIR-POM.I was the only passenger.2FAs.It was my birthday so one of the FAs went up and had a chat to the Captain.He sent back the flight engineer to tell me it was an open bar for the duration.
At POM they were expecting the Australian GG.As I emerged from the plane and started down the stairs with an FA on each side the band began playing God Save the Queen.Took them a couple of minutes to figure out I wasn't the GG.

some of these examples are of last minute aircraft changes, but the story here, was not a lats minute thing. They would have known a long way out that, they had an empty aircraft, but didn't do much about it. It was probably the last 2 way flight of a series of charters, but still lost revenue.

 

[drron]

Mine was a scheduled flight that I had booked about 3 months out.

 

[Mogul]

Have had the whole top floor of an A380 J for myself and wife on SQ.

 

[Lynda2475]

My flight was not an aircraft change and id booked 6 months+ out, as was part of a 9 week trip.