CPRich

I flew solo on a USAir 737 from BWI to CLT a few years ago. There was supposed to be a second passenger, but he/she never showed up.

hfly

I've een the only pax or oone of two on countless commuter and small planes, but that isn't too impressive as the planes were still 5-10 or 20% full. two that stand out in my mind was once in the early 80's flying something large, IIRC a L1011with Delta on New Years Eve, somewhere to NY, and there being less than 8 people on the flight. The most spectacular however was right on the eve of the Gulf War flying a Pan Am 742 JFK-LHR and being one of six passengers onboard, four of which were uniformed military personnel. The only reason the flight went out was because the plane was then going on to Germany to pick up troops and fly them to Saudi. We were all put in First (I was in Biz already) but it would seem that the other four pax had all been in Y.

neuron

For me, the fewest passengers was on a Continental flight (6), the second weekend after 9/11.

For a widebody, it would be around 50 on a UA flight from LHR-JFK.

WannaFlyJ

When I was a teenager back in the late 80's on a Time Air Dash 7 YQL-YYC. Was the only pax.

dabears1020

Yeah, the one time I was thinking of when my flight was cancelled because it was underbooked was early this year on a LAX-PPT flight. It was the first of two that night so they cancelled ours and put us all on the later flight. Apparently the return leg for that aircraft was also severely underbooked, so they basically just eliminated a whole LAX-PPT-LAX run and let the plane sit there since both legs were nearly empty.

I did manage to get lucky coming home several days later though, as that ended up being the second most empty flight I've been on. It was the redeye from PPT-LAX and pretty much every passenger had a full row of seats to themself to sleep in. Very strange to see a deserted A340.

Black Adder

1980, DFW to Midland-Odessa on Braniff, 4 pax including me.

Himeno

The lightest flights I remember were QF107 (LAX-JFK leg) - about 15%, a QF 767 CBR-MEL - 30ish pax, a JL 777 HND-ITM - 15ish% and QF74 - about 15% (when it still went YVR-SFO-SYD - half the pax were coming from Vancouver).

flsunshineflyer

Flight to ORD from BHM in '93. 4 passengers. Mom and I were 2 of them.

Husband flew a red-eye a few days after 9/11 from OAK-ATL. Wide body with 7 people.

yamaka

Two flights stand out:
1. MSP-EWR in 1980. A DC10 with 3 passengers, all in coach.
2. Narita to Seattle in 1987. 747 with 7 people in coach -- don't know what FC looked like.

adelauro

Two stand out for me.

May 1998, Colgan Air IAD-CRW-BLF. Flight was full when we left IAD. Landed in Charleston WV and everyone but me got off, I continued on to Bluefield alone. Been on a number of short hops where there's only two or three pax, but this was the only time when the entire plane except for me disembarked at the first stop.

Second one - CO, EWR-BNA, early Saturday morning flight, 1995-96 time frame. This was way back when CO flew some variety of 737 on this route. I was the only pax and I was sure they were going to cancel the flight, but it turns out that the cargo was more valuable than me, plus they needed the plane at IAH later in the morning due to mechanical issues.

skofarrell

1986 or so, late night Eastern flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale. I think it was a 767 (may have been a 757). Exactly 3 people in coach.

gglave

It's not an aircraft, but about 15 years ago I took the 9pm car ferry on New Year's eve from Victoria, BC to Vancouver, BC.

My car was one of five cars on board, with a dozen or so walk-on foot passengers. We basically all hung out in the cafeteria socializing and the staff cooked us up our meals to order.

To put things in perspective, this ferry was a Spirit-class vessel, 167 meters long, displacing nearly 12,000 tonnes, with a capacity of nearly 450 vehicles and a passenger and crew capacity of over two-thousand.

http://www.bcferries.com/about/fleet...er_island.html

CZBB

about 15 of us on an AS MD80 BUR-SEA. It was back in the day of full meal/beverage service, and pretty much the only thing I remember was the FA (one of 4 for the 15 of us) sitting on the arm rest of our row saying "more complimentary wine sir?"

aces

I flew DEN-SLC with about 12 people on a 200+ seat Delta DC-8 60 series, and we were all moved up to F. I remember looking back in Y and seeing 4 or 5 FAs sitting and chatting amongst themselves. I think it was Thanksgiving night in 1980.

PhoenixRev

Two years ago, a WN flight from LAX to PHX. It was the first flight of the morning.

Me and three others.

It was... odd.