I am reticent to open a new thread, but as best as I can tell, the only thread for Delta about nearly empty flights dates back to 2010. Mods, feel free to move this post if there's a better place for it. Anyway:

My friend and her companion are flying on DL 1549 this morning (November 3, 2025), SEA-ANC. She reported there are only 18 passengers on the flight, on an A220-300, which has 130 seats (75 main + 43 Delta Comfort + 12 F). So, it's flying with 14% of seats occupied. She is gold medallion and the upgrade to F cleared for both her and her companion at the 72-hour mark.

It might be interesting to keep a thread of reports of very empty flights.

Personally, my most recent experience with an unusually light passenger load was a Delta flight from LHR-SEA about a year ago, which was perhaps 25-30% of capacity. I gave up my Premium Select seat to head to the back and take an entirely empty block of 4 seats in the middle section and spread out for a nice extended nap in what you might call "cheap man's business class". I asked the flight attendant if it was OK for me to move back and she said it was fine, and "enjoy".

These sort of experiences were far more common in the 1990s, but in my experience are exceptionally rare now on mainline flights . . .though they still happen fairly regularly on connection carrier flights.