We’ve seen a lot of fairly empty long haul flights due to the pandemic, and we’ve even seen stories of some flights with just one passenger, though typically those involve smaller planes. However, this is the first time I ever recall seeing a story of a plane this big with just one passenger.
Continue reading: Whoa: Emirates Boeing 777 Flies With One Passenger
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
If I woke up on this flight, I would think that I will be facing off against the Langoliers soon.
I was 1 of 9 passengers on a 747 , BKK-HKG during SARS. It was a bit surreal. But to be the only passenger on the plane...little wonder the airlines are still losing billions.
Earlier this year I flew roundtrip to Australia from the US. I thought 35 people on an A350 was strange, but this take's it to another level.
He was seated in Seat 18A (He flew Y Class). The news reports claim that he was seated in Economy class, but well, the crew might have just bumped him into Business.
Wow! I once was the only F passenger on a Lufthansa 747. I thought I was special!
Passengers who hold "golden visas" are exempt from the travel ban from India to the UAE, which is how he was able to fly on this flight while nobody else could.
It is actually more notable that there was one person on the flight, because most of these have been flying with zero passengers.
After the government of Dubai so openly aided the Communist Chinese regime to kidnap a Chinese dissident transiting through Dubai on Emirates, I'm not surprised. India and Communist China are not exactly on friendly terms.
In Fall 2019 I was one of 10 passengers on AA flight MAD to DFW due to cancellation prior day and it ended up being a ferry flight. Weird sensation but the that was the shortest 777 take-off roll I ever experienced. It was fast and steep and I loved it! Most of us were in J class.
Surprised this one passenger flight wasn’t from the People’s Democratic Republic of Koalastan.
I’m based in Dubai and two third of my company’s staff are Indians. Passengers from India are currently banned in most countries but not the other way around. So flights can be substantially occupied outbound and come back with very few or no passengers at all as there are very few exceptions to allow Indian citizens in the United Arab Emirates regardless if they are residents.
@Nicola - there are no restrictions on Indian citizens entering the UAE. The restrictions are on all persons, regardless of citizenship, traveling to the UAE from India without specific exemption.
I was on a LGA-DFW flight in March next to a deadheading AA FA who told me his CDG-JFK flight the day before had 4 passengers. He also said there were no free upgrades.
Once me and my family of 4 flew alone in Qatar A320 Business Class and was quiet special feeling, like on private jet.
In 2016 my wife and I flew from SEA to DXB on a 777 and we were the only ones in F! I thought that was strange, especially since we were flying on AS mileage awards which means there was NO paying passengers in the forward cabin. We actually found it a little uncomfortable since the FAs hovered all the way through the end of dinner.
This passenger paid Rs 18000/-(US$250) for the one way flight from BOM-DXB.He claims his lucky number is 18A so he got himself assigned that seat. This seat is located in the Business Class cabin. He could have paid for the Business class fare as usually the Economy class one way fare is about US$90 and the outbound being always empty nowadays EK sold him a Business Class ticket for US$250 as the lowest Y class fare on this sector would be around this figure. Also this guy is a diamond merchant.It is very common to find such persons in the Business class cabins of EK flights on the BOM-DXB sector.
Emirates is amping up on how they carried only 1 pax on a 777-300ER. The fact is as stated by many above nowadays Emirates is operating passenger flights with inbound and fly outbound with no pax due to the restrictions imposed by UAE. Emirates is still flying to 4-5 cities in India in spite of the restrictions obviously they are making some money with inbound pax + cargo both ways.
It is not as if they would have canceled the flight and let it to stay on ground in BOM if this passenger was not booked. EK is just milking this event for their promotion.
If I have a golden visa from UAE I can also fly on an empty EK 777 tomorrow out of India for as low as US$90 claim on my Twitter feed that EK chartered the flight for me!
What I don't understand is why Emirates would not lower fares to at least partially fill this plane. I'm seeing it with all of the ME3 -- flights are empty yet a coach flight to LAX still costs $1,200 r/t. If that flight was lowered to, say, $450, many would take it just for fun.